Google is accumulating mounds of cash from operations, but Chief Executive Eric
Schmidt appeared to rule out seeking big mergers or making other dramatic changes in how the company uses it. Speaking to investors at the Morgan Stanley Technology Conference, Schmidt was asked by analyst Mary Meeker whether Google would consider changing course on how it uses cash. 'It is highly unlikely,' Schmidt said. 'One of the problems in high-tech industries is that
successful companies tend to generate cash pretty liberally (but) they don't
have good places to put it.' He added that, while Google itself is generating a
mounting pile of cash, 'it is not obvious to me where it would go.' At the
end of 2006, Google had $11.2 billion in cash and marketable securities on its
balance sheet, up around 40 percent from the end of 2005 when it held $8.03
billion, according to company statements. Google's blockbuster $1.65
billion purchase of YouTube last year was a stock transaction.