Google can buy companies, much like Berkshire Hathaway, and does, so they don't really need to be a hedge fund for that purpose. If you think they want to trade

Google can buy companies, much like Berkshire Hathaway, and does, so they don't really need to be a hedge fund for that purpose. If you think they want to trade securities and futures, they wouldn't need to be a hedge fund to do that either. A fund is a legal/tax structure and little else. All the chatter in this thread about insider trading is a red herring. They could gather information, publish and trade on it without taking much legal risk. The reputation/headline risk is probably a bigger barrier. These types of barriers are set by fashion so it is conceivable that they might do it some day. It might not be a bad thing either, since our financial accounting system is such a poor way of disseminating information.