Google Back in a Buying Mood

Some words of reassurance for econalypse-addled entrepreneurs worried about an exit strategy: Google really is in a buying mood again. Discussing the company’s latest earnings on a conference call Thursday, CEO Eric Schmidt said Google is looking for businesses to buy, perhaps even big ones.

“We’re open for business in making strategic acquisitions both large and small,” Schmidt said. “Because of what we’ve seen, we have the confidence to be optimistic about our future and we’re going to invest as a result.”

And what sort of acquisitions is Google (GOOG) looking to make? Smaller strategic acquisitions mostly. Buyouts the size of YouTube or DoubleClick will be, according to Schmidt “quite infrequent.”

The Google CEO’s latest comments echo remarks he made earlier this month and back in September when he first said the company had begun seriously looking at acquisitions again. “Acquisitions are back on again at Google and we are doing our normal maneuvers, which is small companies,” he said. “My estimate would be one-a-month acquisitions and these are largely in lieu of hiring. There may be larger acquisitions, but they really are unpredictable.”

So what’s the M&A outlook? What will Google acquire next? Dynamic ad optimization start-up Teracent, perhaps? The oft-rumored Twitter? Or something else entirely?