This seems like a maturation of the tech industry, and outsourcing of R&D. It's very hard for large companies to innovate - the CEOs have too much on their min

This seems like a maturation of the tech industry, and outsourcing of R&D. It's very hard for large companies to innovate - the CEOs have too much on their minds to chase down hundreds of small ideas. Let others obsess on them, and then buy the winners. The in-house VC arms (Google Ventures) allows them to invest and get some upside as they stay attuned to the market. This hardly seems like a bad thing. In addition, I've heard of people blame Sarbanes Oxley for the slowdown in IPOs. This is ok too. I'm much more likely to trust the financials of Google than of a small startup with an inexperienced CFO.