Net giants predicted to go on buying spree

Google, Microsoft, Apple, Amazon, eBay, Yahoo have north of $50 billion in cash

With the recession behind us, the big, deep-pocketed Internet giants are expected to be actively snapping up companies this year. Indeed, Google already kicked off the year in a buying mood with its $50 million acquisition of social Q&A site, Aardvark. 

"A year ago they stopped all acquisitions," said Mark Mahaney, Internet analyst at Citi Investment Research, referring to the publicly-traded Internet companies, Google, Yahoo, eBay and Amazon. "Now that we're out of the recession.. and now that they're looking for new growth opportunities, you bet there's going to be a pick-up in M&A activity, and those are the four obvious."

Mark points out that Google has $14 bln to $15 billion in cash, eBay has $5 billion, Amazon has $2 bln to $3 bln and Yahoo has $3 bln to $4 billion. Add in Microsoft and Apple's stockpile and there's north of $50 billion in cash looking for secular growth opportunities.

Already we've seen some major acquisitions happening in the last several months, a good indicator of activity in the new year. Amazon's acquisition of Zappos closed in November 2009. (Note: Watch for my interview with Zappos Alfred Lin - coming soon). Google bought AdMob for $750 million in stock in November, and was reportedly interested in buying Yelp, in mid-December. Apple bought Quattro Wireless for $275 million in January.

Mark predicts we'll see more consolidation in these areas - smart phone, ecommerce, mobile advertising and local.