“It’s clear that the worst is behind us,” he said. “What we see at Google is some level of improvement and what is more important is we see it not just in the United States but outside the United States.” That’s what Eric Schmidt told Reuters in an interview last week.

According to the article, and Eric Schmidt’s statement: ”Acquisitions are turned on again at Google and we are doing our normal manoeuvres.” … Google is clearly back on the acquisition trail.

What does this mean for start-ups in APAC?

Well throughout the financial crisis, the world has witnessed a shift of economic power from West to East… and as many of the APAC markets fall under the ‘Emerging Markets’ category there is likely to be a lot of interest. Google has still not cracked China, Japan or Korea.. not to mention a lot of the other markets… so clearly something to monitor and observe.

Could we be seeing some Google acquisitions soon?

Update:  It looks like Yahoo7 (a joint venture between Yahoo! and Channel 7 in Australia) is also on the acquisition trail.