Google, which first sold shares to the public in 2004, has never issued a dividend. In November, Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said the Mountain View (Calif.)-based company planned to use cash to buy back shares once its all-stock purchase of AdMob Inc. was completed, to keep the deal from diluting the stock. The purchase closed in May. "We have made no decisions at all on share buybacks," Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette said on a conference call with analysts July 15. "It's a topic that is regularly debated, brought to the board for debate, and we have nothing to announce." Google spokeswoman Jane Penner declined to comment.... In the past year, Google has hired bond traders, portfolio managers, and other Wall Street veterans to work on a new trading floor in Mountain View, where they invest the company's cash to bolster returns. Google keeps about 50 percent of its cash holdings overseas, Pichette said on the July 15 call. That might inhibit the company from pursuing a buyback or dividend, says Benchmark's Moran. "If you pay a lower tax rate internationally, and then you bring those profits back to the U.S., you have to pay that difference," says Moran, who recommends that Google buy back about $10 billion of stock. "They could finance it via cash flow generated over the next 12 months, and it would be a sizable buyback within 7 percent of the market cap." Yet Google, with its stock in decline and growth slowing in its main search advertising business, may be trying to avoid giving the perception that its days of high growth are behind it, investor Lancz says. Some investors say that Microsoft's decision to pay a dividend signaled the stock had become "more value-oriented than growth-oriented," Lancz says. Google may be concerned that "if they start buying back stock, that may be the first step toward becoming a Microsoft," he says. Read more...
In the past year, Google has hired bond traders, portfolio managers, and other Wall Street veterans to work on a new trading floor in Mountain View, where they invest the company's cash to bolster returns. Google keeps about 50 percent of its cash holdings overseas, Pichette said on the July 15 call. That might inhibit the company from pursuing a buyback or dividend, says Benchmark's Moran. "If you pay a lower tax rate internationally, and then you bring those profits back to the U.S., you have to pay that difference," says Moran, who recommends that Google buy back about $10 billion of stock. "They could finance it via cash flow generated over the next 12 months, and it would be a sizable buyback within 7 percent of the market cap." Yet Google, with its stock in decline and growth slowing in its main search advertising business, may be trying to avoid giving the perception that its days of high growth are behind it, investor Lancz says. Some investors say that Microsoft's decision to pay a dividend signaled the stock had become "more value-oriented than growth-oriented," Lancz says. Google may be concerned that "if they start buying back stock, that may be the first step toward becoming a Microsoft," he says.
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Google Says Censorship Not Obstacle to Its Middle East Growth "We tend to operate in a very, very competitive industry, so users are generally one click away from changing their preferences," Ari Kesisoglu [Turk], manager for Google Middle East [!], said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Dubai. "We are not censoring our own information, and we've never been asked to."... "If you want to play ball in China or the Middle East or basically any other country outside, you've got to play by the local rules," said Jin Yoon, an analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Hong Kong [!]. "If you don't play by the local rules, you essentially have to mark yourself out of the market."... "Whatever happened in China is completely exceptional and it doesn't result in us making any decisions globally," Kesisoglu said.... In many Middle Eastern countries, television programs and films cut out nudity, physical intimacy or homosexual scenes. Internet firewalls are common across the region, particularly in the Persian Gulf, where several countries ban popular websites such as Skype and Flickr. Websites that are critical of Islam or ruling political regimes are often blocked. In August, Yahoo! Inc. purchased Maktoob.com, providing it with an entry point into a market that includes 22 countries and more than 350 million Arabic speakers. Maktoob is the largest portal in the Arab world with 16 million monthly users. Vodafone Egypt last year purchased Sarmady, a Cairo-based provider of digital content. "Google [?], Yahoo, help the region and lobby the government for less censorship," said Samih Toukan, founder of Maktoob.com. "We lobby as local people because censorship hurts us, it hurts innovation it hurts growth." Read more....
"We tend to operate in a very, very competitive industry, so users are generally one click away from changing their preferences," Ari Kesisoglu [Turk], manager for Google Middle East [!], said in a Bloomberg Television interview in Dubai. "We are not censoring our own information, and we've never been asked to."...
"If you want to play ball in China or the Middle East or basically any other country outside, you've got to play by the local rules," said Jin Yoon, an analyst at Nomura Holdings Inc. in Hong Kong [!]. "If you don't play by the local rules, you essentially have to mark yourself out of the market."...
"Whatever happened in China is completely exceptional and it doesn't result in us making any decisions globally," Kesisoglu said....
In many Middle Eastern countries, television programs and films cut out nudity, physical intimacy or homosexual scenes. Internet firewalls are common across the region, particularly in the Persian Gulf, where several countries ban popular websites such as Skype and Flickr. Websites that are critical of Islam or ruling political regimes are often blocked.
In August, Yahoo! Inc. purchased Maktoob.com, providing it with an entry point into a market that includes 22 countries and more than 350 million Arabic speakers. Maktoob is the largest portal in the Arab world with 16 million monthly users. Vodafone Egypt last year purchased Sarmady, a Cairo-based provider of digital content.
"Google [?], Yahoo, help the region and lobby the government for less censorship," said Samih Toukan, founder of Maktoob.com. "We lobby as local people because censorship hurts us, it hurts innovation it hurts growth."
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NB. crackberry and smackphone exemptions Diversity is the key to economic and political evolution.
