Google's Predicament

Conduct research on Google. This means you must read about Google in The Wall Street Journal. Figure out basic information related to its strategy:

• How much money does Google have?

• Who are its competitors?

• What acquisitions has it made over the last four years?

• What are its stated plans for the future?

Consider a specific acquisition for Google for this year. Look at the size and cost of the target company. Who owns it now? What will Google's competitors do? How much is the company worth?

Some Pointers for the Paper

• Be specific. Which specific company -- name, size, location, financials -- are you recommending?

• Justify your recommendation. Why would Google want to acquire this company? What is its strategic value?

• Do not refer to Yahoo as a competitor or dump the first three pages from Wikipedia into the paper. These are the pages that read, "Google is an American multinational corporation specializing in Internet-related services and products. These include online advertising technologies, search, cloud computing, and software."

• Use your own thinking - analyze the issues and solve the problem.

• This is the third of three cases. Strive to be even better on this case than the first two. That means you need to improve your analysis and apply ideas from the course.