Google Inc. is keeping a large portion of its cash outside the U.S. so it can use as much as $30 billion for possible acquisitions, the company said in a letter to regulators.
The owner of the top Web-search engine generates about half of its revenue overseas, and it avoids paying U.S. taxes by keeping foreign earnings abroad. Google needs the cash for deals as competition rises overseas, according to a Dec. 20 letter to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, filed yesterday as part of a correspondence with the agency regarding disclosures.
