Google is already Microsoft; it was almost from the very beginning. Despite repeated and wide-ranging (especially in Google's case) efforts to build additional businesses, both companies are from a revenue perspective one-trick ponies. Google has search advertising and Microsoft has the Windows+Office franchise. From a shareholder's perspective, nothing else either company does offers any [positive] return.

My great hope is that the new funding rules will make startups accessible to the general investing population. That would, in principle, obviate the desire of existing companies with mature, successful businesses to go out and start unrelated new efforts. Conglomerates aren't very popular these days and haven't been for a long time; it would be nice to see these companies stick to what they're good at, pay their shareholders richly, and then let those shareholders decide whether they want to go invest that income in something else (and if so, in what).

Well, a man can dream, right?