After only a few years, Google’s now in an interesting position. It has $11 billion in cash, it’s the undisputed king of search, it’s making money hand over fist in SEM but its stock growth has, for the time being, plateaued. Eric Schmidt said there are no major acquisitions coming — Google likes to buy for $20-$30 million.
All this presents and interesting dilemma strategically and culturally. Now what? Of course you would:
- Try and straighten out the YouTube PR mess and license branded content to ensure that it’s there when users look
- Work on mobile to ensure you’re in the hunt for mobile usage and ad revenue
- Try and woo brand advertisers, where you’ve got lots of room for growth
- Try and fulfill your one stop, many distribution platforms (print, TV, online, radio) strategy
But all this is already going on. Where would you build out or focus and invest? Now that the smoke is clearing a bit I think Eric Schmidt & Co. face some interesting strategic choices.
