Just because they have cash doesn't mean they want to dig into it, lest we forget that Google already once initiated a hiring freeze during leaner times in the advertising market.
Additionally, I hear they are already underpaying programmers. (I hesitate to mention this because I don't actually have any data.)
If shareholders cared this much about micro- financial issues, Google's headquarters would be based in Kansas and not Silicon Valley. And they wouldn't have solar panels or ball pits, or ... Sparing gross negligence, it seems like shareholders are willing to accept that you need to spend money to make money.
(Incidentally, I work at huge megacorp with annoyed shareholders, but I still get to fly business class when traveling abroad for work. My last flight was something like $11,000 when economy was $1200. Oh hai, order of magnitude! It might seem like a waste of shareholder money, but they accept it as a cost of doing business.)
