Business Channel 2006-12-21&24

The most powerful firm in cyberspace 1 now wants to conquer outer space. It's just the latest move in what has been a banner year for Google as it's spread its online web into bold new directions.

Less than an hour ago, Google and NASA announced that they will explore a range of tie-ups from researching data and utilizing 2 Google Earth. As part of that effort, the space agency will make more of its information available online for all to see. Down the road that will include real-time weather visuals and forecasting, 3D maps of the moon and Mars, and real-time tracking of the International Space Station and the space shuttle. NASA administrator 3 Michael Griffin says the partnership 4 will allow everyone to "experience a virtual flight over the surface of the moon or through the canyons 5 of Mars. " And he says the hope is to make NASA's space exploration work accessible to everyone. This is just the latest in the string of high-profile Google partnerships 6 this year, the most significant being, of course, Google's 1.8-billion-dollar deal to buy YouTube, and there have been deals with News Corp's MySpace and Ebay, Sony, Warner Music Group, Intuit and XM Satellite Radio and that's just to name a few. Google followers 7 call today's deal another important part of its grand strategy.

It reflects how dominant 8 Google is in the market today. If you look at Yahoo, Yahoo is struggling. Microsoft seems to have lost its competitive edge. And deals like this help Google build buzz, ah, you know, from a financial perspective, it, it, it doesn't mean much, but it certainly is cool if people can be flying around Mars and the moon.

All these deals have helped Google share price to reach into an area that NASA is more than familiar with: the Stratosphere. Google shares are up almost 16% year to date even though they are off their record highs of 513 dollars a share, of course up hugely from the original IPO, but interestingly, in Monday's trading they are handing back some of those gains, worries that Google has been flying a bit too high, has traders taking some cash off the table, and there is at least some concern about whether Google has the rocket fuel to keep up this forward momentum 9. The Wall Street Journal reports that Google's earnings 10 growth may fall to earth next year, the reason: Google may not get as much interest from its massive cash pile as it has in the past.


tie-up (n.) A tie-up between two organizations is a business connection that has been arranged between them.
★The deal is expected to result in similar tie-ups between big media companies and telecommunications operators.

year to date a period starting January 1 of the current year and ending today.

IPO (abbr.) initial public offering
the first time that stock in a company is available for the public to buy on the stock market