Google increases pace of acquisitions

Published 5:00 am Thursday, August 12, 2010

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — 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, Calif., 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 U.S. 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, which makes games for social networks.