Google chief denies plans to acquire Twitter

Schmidt said that Google is unlikely to buy anything in the short term

Google chief executive Eric Schmidt has denied that the search giant is looking to make acquisitions, and has squashed rumours of a buyout of micro-blogging site Twitter.

Schmidt was talking to interviewer and broadcaster Charlie Rose, who asked him bluntly: "Does Google want to buy Twitter?"

"I shouldn't talk about specific acquisitions," replied Schmidt. "We're unlikely to buy anything in the short term partly because I think prices are still high. And it's unfortunate [as] I think we're in the middle of a cycle. Google is generating a lot of cash. And we keep that cash in extremely secure banks."

Schmidt said that Google's most recent high-profile acquisitions - DoubleClick and YouTube - were performing well, and have been "phenomenally successful".

The interview also covered the openness of the internet, and the impact that sites like YouTube have on this. Schmidt explained that the immediacy of web media is empowering individuals, and that this is having a sociological effect on policy and humanity.

"The most interesting thing to me is that transparency is how you keep societies honest. The internet and the digital revolution have given people the ability to see everything. So you can now take photographs, take videos of everything you see in your world, and people discover it," he said.

"And there are whole communities of people who are interested in these kinds of aspects. And they serve as a form of check and balance on the powerful, the rich, the people who might exploit others. It doesn't necessarily mean a different outcome, but it means that everybody can't hide. They have to actually tell the truth. To me, that's a great step forward."

The full interview is available here.