Google May Get Into Venture Capital

Google’s current market cap is a little over $151 billion, and so long as Jerry Yang’s not involved, that means the search giant can buy just about anything it wants.  But there’s word that Google may take a more subtle approach to growth by creating a venture capital unit.

The new arm would likely focus on American companies, with David C. Drummond, Google’s chief legal officer and senior vice president in charge of corporate development, leading the operation.  Google’s prior experience in these matters comes from having invested in Indian VCs and creating an Indian enterprise investment company.

 David C. Drummond

Any expansion would make for an interesting move to say the least.  Google’s wealth and power might cause some startups to trip over themselves competing for its support.  That same wealth and power might cause others to run away so that they aren’t overtaken for less than the price of a regular acquisition.

Regardless, though, Jessica E. Vascellaro reports, "Google executives previously have bandied about the idea of launching a venture-capital unit, and the plans could still fall through."

So, even as YouTube got a new pal late yesterday, we may not see an end (or slowdown) in Google-related acquisition announcements anytime soon.