"We're open for business in making strategic acquisitions, both large and small," Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) CEO Eric Schmidt told analysts Thursday evening on a conference call about the search engine provider's better-than-expected third-quarter results. The company is seeking major acquisitions and expects to buy a large company "maybe every year or two."
Schmidt told Reuters in September that Google "expects to buy one small company a month as it starts up its dealmaking machine again after a breather during the worst period of the financial crisis." On the call Thursday, Schmidt said that "any large deals would need to have a significant strategic rationale, such as accelerating revenue or providing access to a 'major, major' pool of customers that Google cannot currently reach," the wire service is reporting.
Meanwhile, analysts are raising their target prices for Google's stock.
"Google delivered stellar 3Q results with Y/Y growth of 14% in paid; clicks and 6% decline in CPCs (vs. our +13% and -10%, respectively)," said a Friday research note from Jefferies & Co.
Continues the note:
We are raising our estimates and PT to $600 while maintaining a Buy rating on the stock. Sequential lift in pricing, resilient click volumes and financial discipline drove Google's 3Q results comfortably above consensus estimates. Growth acceleration in key metrics bode well for the stock, while management's bullish macro commentary is positive for our broader Internet group as advertisers grow their spend online.
Canaccord Adams Inc., an institutional broker and investment bank headquartered in Boston, raised its target price for Google even higher -- to $700, up from $560, a 25% increase.
"The growth in paid clicks, 14% year over year, lends more credence to our thesis that campaigns may return much more aggressively in Q4 this year as restricted budgets begin to find their way back to drive a better- than-expected holiday season," says the bank's technology analyst Jeff Rath.
"Improved YouTube monetization appears to be ramping materially, supporting the notion
that a second product cycle may be about to begin in order to sustain Google's high level of growth," commented Rath on the search engine developer's long-term prospects. - Mary Kathleen Flynn
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Very impressive the company is able to take new technologies and develop them into profitable business time and time again.