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Google acquisition hungry

Stefanie Olsen Staff writer, CNET News
Stefanie Olsen covers technology and science.
Stefanie Olsen

It's no surprise, but Google plans to "spend a significant amount of cash on acquisitions and other investments in 2005," according to the company's quarterly filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission on Monday.

In recent years, the search king has maintained a steady pace of buyouts, typically of small unknown upstarts like Kaltix, Picasa or Outride. But since Google went public and amassed a cash hoard, (with a market capitalization of $63 billion), it must be quadrupling those efforts. And yet it has kept a low-key approach, buying companies like Keyhole, Dodgeball and Urchin.

"Through these acquisitions and investments, we acquire engineering teams and technologies that we believe will help us expand and grow our business," according to the filing.

Among the many companies Google is likely eyeing, sources have said that it has been talking to TiVo about an acquisition or a partnership. So stay tuned.