If I were a shareholder, I'd much rather have them pay me a dividend than enter the distracting world of venture capital. These types of moves inevitably risk

If I were a shareholder, I'd much rather have them pay me a dividend than enter the distracting world of venture capital. These types of moves inevitably risk turning the company into yet another bloated enterprise, even if they are successful in their investments. Google has always had a significant amount of cash. They used to use that capital to do really interesting, strategically smart things, like buying dark fiber. This was similar to Apple's philosophy - you don't see Apple distracting themselves with some sort of "Apple Ventures" play; instead, they will take advantage of their cash position to do things like cornering the market for miniature hard disks, which leads to a direct benefit to the bottom line. Methinks there are too many cooks in the kitchen.