http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c70e3cb4-1d69-11de-9eb3-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

Though committing only to invest $100m in its first year as a venture capital investor, Google executives made clear in an interview with the Financial Times that the internet group had its sights set on joining the top ranks of the valley’s close-knit financial world, which is dominated by firms such as Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia Capital.

Given its rapidly expanding range of interests on the internet, it has become the leading competitor to many new online businesses, making it potentially as much a threat to start-ups as Microsoft once seemed in the heyday of the PC software business.

poise 〈…の〉釣り合いをとる，バランスをとる.

close-knit (社会的・文化的に)しっかりと結びついた

heyday 真っ盛り，全盛