Internet giant Google has spent more than $500 million for as many as 54 acquisitions and asset purchases so far in 2011 to expand into new markets and expects its current pace of takeovers to continue.
During the nine-month period ended September 30, 2011, Google completed 54 acquisitions and purchases of assets for a total cash consideration of about $502 million, the company has said in a filing with the U.S. market regulator Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
This exceeds Google’s previous annual record of 44 purchases completed last year. The company had spent cash worth $669 million for its all acquisitions in 2010.
In the first nine months of 2010, Google completed 37 acquisitions for a total cash consideration of approximately $626 million.
“Acquisitions are an important element of our overall corporate strategy and use of capital, and we expect our current pace of acquisitions to continue. These transactions could be material to our financial condition and results of operations,” the company said.
The internet firm, which has $42.6 billion of cash and cash equivalent, said, “We also expect to continue to evaluate and enter into discussions regarding a wide array of potential strategic transactions.”
Google is estimated to have acquired over 100 firms in the last decade, translating into purchase of 10 companies every year, on an average.
Google disclosed in the filing that that it spent $151 million to buy restaurant-reviews firm Zagat Survey last month. It also spent $114 million on German company Daily Deals GmbH in September.
Further, in August, Google said it would buy Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc for about $12.5 billion in a bid to introduce hardware to the Android system.
The Motorola deal is still subject to closing conditions including the approval of the transaction by Motorola’s stockholders. If Google fails to meet certain regulatory requirements and is forced to terminate the merger deal, it will have to pay Motorola a fee of $2.5 billion.
Google said it expects to complete the deal by the end of this year or early next year.
