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"Today is Googleday!" - Internet Sector Comes Back to Life

"Today is Googleday!" - Internet Sector Comes Back to Life
By Jeremy Geelan
Article Rating:
August 17, 2004 12:00 AM EDT
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 25,911
Having asked the Securities and Exchange Commission to declare its IPO effective as of 4:00 PM. Eastern time today, Google should be worth about $110 per share on its fiirst day of trading tomorrow, experts predict.

Google Inc.had net income of $143 million on sales of $1.35 billion in the first half of 2004.

Trading on the Nasdaq stock market under the symbol "GOOG" is expected to be vigorous, and futures contracts traded on the Web yesterday lead experts to predict a 59% chance that the shares will advance once trading starts.

Google began accepting bids on Friday for the 25.7 million shares of Class A common stock it is making available through its unusual electronic "Dutch auction." Depending on the final price (the range set is $108-135 for each share) Google's market value will tshortly emerge as being only just below that of rival Yahoo Inc.

Amazingly, for a company founded in just 1998, Google's market valuation will exceed that of both McDonald's Corp. and Sony Corp. and co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page (pictured) will become multimillionaires overnight.

Of the shares to be sold in Google's initial public offering of Class A common stock, 14,142,135 shares will be issued and sold by Google and 11,555,394 of the shares will be sold by the selling stockholders. 

Bambi Franciso, of CBS MarketWatch, remarked: "If Google's IPO does go, it's actually good timing - at least compared to the past six weeks. Just in the nick of time, the Internet sector appears to be coming back to life.".

Published August 17, 2004 – Reads 25,911
Copyright © 2004 SYS-CON Media, Inc. — All Rights Reserved.
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More Stories By Jeremy Geelan

Jeremy Geelan is Sr. Vice-President of SYS-CON Media & Events. He is Conference Chair of the all-new International Cloud Computing Conference & Expo series, of the International Virtualization Conference & Expo series, of AJAXWorld RIA Conference & Expo series, and of the long-running SOAWorld Conference & Expo series. He's founder of Cloud Computing Journal, Web 2.0 Journal, AJAX & RIA Journal and other leading SYS-CON titles. From 2000-6, as first editorial director and then group publisher of SYS-CON Media, he was responsible for the development of all new titles and i-Technology portals for the firm, and regularly represents SYS-CON at conferences and trade shows, speaking to technology audiences both in North America and overseas. He is executive producer and presenter of "Power Panels with Jeremy Geelan" on SYS-CON.TV.

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Most Recent Comments
fantabulous 08/17/04 04:58:40 AM EDT

i think i saw somewhere that its overall stake will increase to 4% but Yahoo already announced it will sell the Google shares to bolster its Q3 results. Plus Yahoo will forever be able to say Google''s ad technology is based on theirs!!
Yoohah 08/17/04 04:55:40 AM EDT

Anyone remember how much stock Yahoo! - which was an early funder of Google - had? Was it 2%? How many shares did it just agree to give Yahoo! as settlement of that patent dispute? What percentage finally will end up in the hands of Yahoo! then?
SECzzzzzzzzz 08/17/04 03:58:41 AM EDT

As 87dddT mentions, yes Google disclosed in a new filing Monday that the SEC has initiated an informal inquiry "into the company's issuance of stock and options to current and former employees."

But Brin/Page already indicated earlier this month that it may have violated several state laws by not formally registering these shares. They have factored it into the IPO plan. It'll be just fine, you'll see.

"We would contest vigorously any claim that a violation of the Securities Act (of 1933) occurred," they said in the SEC filing, conceding that if a court did find Google guilty of violating the act, it would be "required to repurchase the shares sold to purchasers in this offering at the original purchase price for a period of one year following the date of the violation." It's all there openly, in the SEC filing.
Internet sector back to life? 08/17/04 03:35:17 AM EDT

Google already warned IPO investors that the price won't sky-rocket today like other hot technology issues in the late 1990s:

"As part of this auction process, we are attempting to assess the market demand for our Class A common stock and to set the size and price to the public of this offering to meet that demand," Google said in its IPO filing. "As a result, buyers should not expect to be able to sell their shares for a profit shortly after our Class A common stock begins trading."
Goooooooogle 08/17/04 03:33:26 AM EDT

yes but Wall Street is mad about Google's IPO format and the protest about this is connected - other IPO companies make blunders like this but they're not reported as widely in the press.
87dddT 08/17/04 03:30:28 AM EDT

I thought that they "may have" issued 23 million shares of stock to their own employees illegally?
NasDAQ 08/17/04 03:25:57 AM EDT

Google's IPO is a PR event more than anything, just as their choice of Dutch Auction - a system that bypasses the fat-cat banks - was chosen for its publicity value.
InTheMoney 08/17/04 03:22:36 AM EDT

How come the oo's in Google's search-page logo don't have $$$ signs today then??