Another viewpoint might be that if the economy is indeed in for a slow or down period (which is certainly not a guarantee at this point), they will be better eq

Another viewpoint might be that if the economy is indeed in for a slow or down period (which is certainly not a guarantee at this point), they will be better equipped to weather the storm and seize opportunities that arise (ex: acquiring competitors who could not survive). Personally I'd love to see them throw around that cash to bring serious competition to a few specific markets. Cell phones and cable are the big ones (and Google is already getting started there). Looks like they are plans to do similar things with VR, robotics, and automated vehicles.