| With $40 billion in cash Google M&A Chief says deal focus has changed |
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| Thursday, 16 February 2012 11:51 |
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Summary: David Lawee is one of the most powerful people in Silicon Valley. As head of Google’s corporate development, he has a lot of money to spend. Google made 79 acquisitions last year, mostly small companies and mostly for their engineering talent. The largest acquisition was Motorola Mobility, a $12.5 billion deal. This year, the search giant expects to focus on smaller numbers of deals in strategic areas such as mobile and video, said David Lawee, VP of Corporate Development. In an interview with Richard Waters, West Coast Managing Editor for the Financial Times, Mr Lawee said there was no interest in acquisitions in social networking sectors, and that Google+ was on “a pretty good trajectory.” Google has about $40 billion in cash and many other tech companies have large hoards of cash too, which could inflate the valuation of strategic acquisitions.
Google changes focus on dealmaking - FT.com The interview revealed an interesting management change at Google, under it’s new CEO, Larry Page. In an effort to rekindle the company’s entrepreneurial, startup spirit, meetings between senior executives are scheduled for evening hours, between 6 pm and 11pm. 
Tom Foremski reports on the business and culture of Silicon Valley at the intersection of technology and media. |