The alternative, of course, is to try to anticipate what Google will be shopping for by second-guessing its M&A strategy -- a favorite pastime of market analysts and tech bloggers across the Web.
"Even if you can see how Google is expanding itself, it's not that easy to develop your company in that direction and in a way that it matures at just the right time," Marks says.
Typically, large companies buy smaller ones to instantly gain additional content, customers, services, products, applications or other technologies.
For instance, when Google wanted a toe hold in the audio advertising market, instead of investing in its own research and development, it paid $102 million for dMarc Broadcasting, an automated radio ad placement company. When it needed e-mail security and compliance tools for Google Apps Premiere Edition, it bought Postini.
Image: (L to R) Google CFO George Reyes, CEO Eric E. Schmidt, Sr VP Omid Kordestani, co-founder Larry Page, Nasdaq CEO Robert Greifeld and Google VP David Drummond at the listing of Google, Inc on the Nasdaq stock exchange on August 19, 2004 in New York City. | Photograph: Nasdaq via Getty Images
Also read: Slideshow: The 10 cheapest businesses in America
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