EquityMind - 6:32 pm on Jan 2, 2003 (gmt 0)

Spagmoid and others who say Google is doing this for greed and will lose focus and shouldn't go public - You just aren't getting it. It's not whether Google cares or not - it is inevitable because part of the ownership mix of Google are investors who plunked down in excess of $35MM. These investors want at LEAST a 10x return on investment so unless Google has $350 MM in spare cash lying around to leverage an MBO (managment buyout) they have to appease their initial investors (highly unlikely since it would be unwise to part with that kind of money as a startup).

Kleiner Perkins and Sequoia have a history of IPO's under their belts and combined have built some of the largest companies (Amazon, AOL, Netscape, Intuit, Genentech, Compaq, Sun, Juniper, Apple, Cisco, Yahoo etc). I highly doubt that they for even 1 minute would consider an MBO as part of the exit strategy for their capital. The only acceptable way to earn back the money that they invested on behalf of their limited partners in the funds that invested is through an IPO or to be aquired by a company with whose stock they can easily liquidate (i.e. public stock).

It will happen whether the founders want to or not, it may not even occur this year, personally I think it will and will lead to a resurgence in the marketplace and will hopefully restore consumer confidence in the markets.