Investing in many startups requires a great deal of judgement and some due-diligence, far more than either IBM or Yahoo were capable... If direct investment wer

Investing in many startups requires a great deal of judgement and some due-diligence, far more than either IBM or Yahoo were capable... If direct investment were in-house scalable, institutional investors wouldn't invest in VC funds, but it's a very high-risk, somewhat hands-on activity to avoid throwing all money away. It's not called a warchest for nothing, so although it might give competitors some pause, it does chap investors for not disbursing larger dividends or reinvesting in growth/m&a, and it additionally paints a larger bull's eye on them for capital extraction.