CNBC: New York Times Potential Acquisition Target for Google

Want more evidence print media is giving way to digital formats? According to CNBC "Squawk on the Street" Nov. 3, Internet behemoth Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) could have its sights set on The New York Times (NYSE:NYT).

Brian Shactman, a general assignment reporter for CNBC noted an article in the Nov. 2 Wall Street Journal that indicated a lot of big companies are hoarding cash and short term investments and it pointed out the information technology sector had nearly $280 billion to invest.

"There's so much talk today about M and A," Shactman said of mergers and acquisitions. "Well let's look it forward - some names out there that could be in the offing, some things to think about. Remember The Wall Street Journal said yesterday tech has about $280 billion to work with. Remember Google said they wanted to make about one acquisition a month. They have the cash - they got to speed up."

Shactman said S&P 400 companies, an index of companies with mid-cap stocks, could be targets of S&P 500, since many of those companies have this cash on hand.

"I talked to James Altucher of stockpickr.com today," Shactman said. "He basically said the S&P 400 is going to get bought by the S&P 500 mainly because of a lot of issues with financing."

According to the Journal, Google's cash and short-term investments are up 53 percent to $22 billion in the third quarter from a year ago, accounting for 58 percent of its total assets. That puts Google in position to make a move on the Times and many targets.

"One name he said - New York Times - could be a target by Google," Shactman said. "About.com is a big revenue driver for them. It's trading at under $10. He said they should just throw in the towel - New York Times."

Earlier this year, a share of New York Times had fallen under $4 a share. It's rebounded since then, approaching nearly $11 a share in October, but has since settled just $8 a share.