Remember when infoseek used to be
the search engine? What happend to them? They went public.
But just like any parent, you can only stand your beloved children for so long before you are ready to kick them out and unleash them on the public.
Maybe the google guys are just getting burnt out and are ready to cash in and move on to something new?
Then again, I can't think of a better starting point than
owning google for *anything* you might want to do or get involved in.