The Web search giant has historically maintained a steady pace of acquiring small, privately held companies, but its deal machine took a breather earlier this year when Schmidt said that prices were too high for his liking."Acquisitions are turned on again at Google and we are doing our normal maneuvers, which is small companies," Schmidt told Reuters Television, before delivering a speech on green technology on the fringes of the G20 summit in Pittsburgh. "My estimate would be one-a-month acquisitions and these are largely in lieu of hiring," he said. "There may be larger acquisitions, but they really are unpredictable."
Confident that the global economy has improved sufficiently that it's now prudent for Google to begin making deals once again, Schmidt told Reuters that "the worst is clearly behind us" and explained, "What we see at Google is some level of improvement and what is more important is we see it not just in the United States but outside the United States."