Google Inc. made a disclosure in a letter to the U.S. regulatory authorities, saying that it may spend as much as 30 billion dollars on eventual acquisitions outside its home market. Recently, the company has concentrated on purchases into overseas markets and foreign businesses.
The company wrote in its letter to the Securities and Exchange Commission, which was cited by Bloomberg: “We continue to expect substantial use of our offshore earnings for acquisitions as our global business has expanded into other product offerings like mobile devices. It is reasonable to forecast that Google needs between $20 to $30 billion of foreign earnings to fund potential acquisitions of foreign targets and foreign technology rights from U.S. targets in 2013 and beyond.”
As reported by the Financial Times, the Web-search engine also revealed to regulators earlier in 2014 before the 3.2-billion-dollar acquisition of Nest Labs that it is willing to put advertising “on refrigerators, car dashboards, thermostats, glasses, and watches, to name just a few possibilities”. Such deals are considered beneficial for Google, which generates about half of its total revenue outside its home market and avoids paying U.S. taxes by keeping its earnings generated abroad away from the U.S.
As Google Inc. has explained to regulatory authorities, the eventual purchases would be a part of its overall growth strategy. The company is seeking to make the sizes of the deals even bigger in the future. In 2013, the company has been reported to have invested about 1.5 billion dollars on more than 20 strategic contracts to expand its reach globally.
This trend was confirmed by the Web-search engine itself in the letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission cited by Bloomberg: “In the past few years we have completed significant acquisitions with the individual deal size increasing in more recent years, and this trend is likely to continue in future years.”
Google Inc. was 1.72% up to close at 549.70 dollars per share yesterday, marking a one-year change of +21.10%. According to the information published on CNN Money, the 42 analysts offering 12-month price forecasts for Google Inc. have a median target of 662.50, with a high estimate of 750.00 and a low estimate of 525.00. The median estimate represents a +20.52% increase from the last price of 549.70.