ronin - 10:19 am on Dec 25, 2009 (gmt 0)

Well if the Chinese offerred Brin and co. say USD 50 billion for the data... why not.. After all it is a private co. for profit.

There is a widespread fallacy put about regarding commercial organisations. It is that: the sole raison d'etre of commercial organisations is to maximise short term profits. This has never been the case.

I can only conclude that people who put about such opinions have never been in charge of a commercial organisation.

<offtopic>Indeed, if a company chooses to avoid the tyranny of public shareholder ownership - admittedly Google has not opted to avoid such - not only will that rationally-run company prioritise long-term profit maximisation over short-term profit maximisation, but the company may relegate profit maximisation to second or third priority.</offtopic>