Google IPO

[BettorsChat]

Initial Public Offering Details

IPO Date: To be determined
Method: Modified Dutch Auction
Lead Underwriters: Morgan Stanley, CSFB
Stock Symbol: GOOG
Exchange: NASDAQ
Number of Shares: 24,636,659
Share Price Range: $108 to $135
Value of Offering: $2.66 bil. to $3.32 bil.
Net Proceeds to Company: Approx. $1.66 billion
Initial Market Cap: $29 bil. to $36.25 bil.

Google announced plans Monday to sell about 25 million shares at up to $135 each when it goes public as early as next month giving the Internet search engine a total market value of as much as $36 billion, on par with the likes of McDonald's and Sony.
It would be the eighth-largest initial public offering in history, bigger than most of the IPOs that took place during the dot- com craze of the 1990s.

Google shares will be distributed in an unusual auction designed to give the general public a better chance to buy stock before shares begin trading. Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who formed the company in 1998, also stand to profit handsomely along with its stock-holding employees and venture capital investors

[BettorsChat]

Google files $2.7B IPO -- and you can play

One of the biggest initial public offerings in history will make the people behind the search engine very wealthy men. And many of the shares will be auctioned off to everyday investors

By MSN Money staff

Google, the world's No. 1 Web search provider, filed with U.S. regulators on Thursday to become a publicly listed company and sell as much as $2.7 billion in stock in a widely anticipated initial public offering.

And average investors may be able to get in on the deal; some, and perhaps all, of the available shares will be offered in a public auction over the Internet, Google's filing says.

Such offerings remain unusual, but perhaps that's OK with the company. "Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one," its founders say in an introduction to its filing.

Mountain View, Calif.-based Google said it would seek to list on either the Nasdaq market or the New York Stock Exchange. The filing did not include a timetable or ticker symbol.

Morgan Stanley (MWD, news, msgs) and Credit Suisse First Boston were listed as lead underwriters.

The company cites Warren Buffett as an inspiration, and his Berkshire Hathaway (BRK.A, news, msgs) may have been a model for the company's share structure. Class A shares, with one vote each, will being sold to the public. Class B shares, with 10 votes each, will go to management and founders. That set-up also mirrors The Washington Post, where Buffett sits on the board.

It's designed to insulate management from short-term pressures so it can focus on the long term.

From the filing, it appears that all Class A shares in the offering will be sold through the auction.

“Informed investors willing to pay the IPO price should be able to buy as many shares as they want, within reason, in the IPO, as on the stock market," the company says. "It is important to us to have a fair process for our IPO that is inclusive of both small and large investors. It is also crucial that we achieve a good outcome for Google and its current shareholders. This has led us to pursue an auction-based IPO for our entire offering."

Finances finally revealed
The filing gave a much-anticipated look into the closely held company’s finances. Google had nearly $1 billion in revenues last year with the vast majority, more than 95%, coming from advertising. Revenues have increased tenfold since 2001. For the three months ended March 31, 2004, the company saw revenues of more than $389 million, up 118% from more than $178 million in the year-ago period.

[wallstreet]

The only thing I would want in that IPO is to short it.

Or short the lesser thans in the group that might rise on the hype.

[Sports-Plays]

SHORT SHORT SHORT!!!

Google will hover around the $15 mark by years end. This is a search engine!!!!! That's all it is....95% of their revenue is from advertising...guess what?! Within 6 months every company in the world will be wanting to advertise on Google, then when you and I go there to actually use their site, we will be so overwhelmed with pop-ups and other ads that we will start using AskJeeves.com.....and the cycle will begin again!!

the ham mer

[wallstreet]

If they were smart/are smart they will delay this IPO and bring it when things are hoping again.

Now if the sucker opened at 115, it would close at 70.

Too many issues and unresolved problems right now.

One thing I LOVE about this IPO, it pushes it right in the faces of those slimy stinking brokers that want to price it themselves so they can make a big buck off it opening day. Those creeps did that for years and the little guy got it in the a$$, at least this way the company gets the green.

I hope more companies do dutch auctions and screw over the underwriters..

:angryfire