Google doubles acquisition pace

Google Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt has doubled the anticipated pace of acquisitions this year and expects to maintain that rate after some internal projects have failed to spur growth.

“The opportunities are there,” Schmidt said in an interview from the company’s Mountain View, California, headquarters this week. “We can afford it. We’re in a mode of investment for the long term.”

Google, the search engine with almost two-thirds of the US market, is making acquisitions every couple of weeks — more than the once-a-month pace Schmidt projected when it began buying companies again last year after the recession. Its latest deal was last week’s purchase of Slide Inc, which makes games for social networks.

The company is snapping up startups in social networking, mobile technology and graphical advertising — areas where its homegrown efforts needed outside help. Google still gets more than 90 per cent of revenue from its traditional advertising business, and it’s stopped work on projects such as the Wave collaboration site because they didn’t bring in enough users. The company also has struggled to keep pace with the growth of Facebook.

“They’re trying to keep up with a rapid rate of innovation in the online world,” said Clay Moran, an analyst at Benchmark Company in Boca Raton, Florida.