When it runs out of new areas to expand into, BusinessWeek columnist Jon Fine believes Google will have to buy a content producer in order to keep growing.

With new ventures being announced regularly and extraordinary regular growth, Fine posits that it's only a matter of time before Google buys some form of content producer.

It won't necessarily have to be a big player, but owning the content it sells ads against will soon be a decision Google will have to make, Fine believes.

That decision will be largely driven by the observation that Google's competitors are doing just that. Recently Microsoft bought a stake in Facebook, a move against which Google retaliated by announcing plans to build a social network to end all social networks, so to speak. With time, the cost of acquiring traffic will drive Google to lock up outlets for its ads.

Owning the outlet would also eliminate one of Google's biggest advertising-related costs: Paying content producers for running the ads. By eliminating that expenditure Google could quickly increase profits, should it find growth slowing.