Google Announces IPO

[Hunter]

Google just announced that they are officially going public. Should occure within 2-3 months.

[pleeker]

Dang. I had Friday in the office pool. :)

[Added: Here's a Reuters quickie [reuters.com].]

[edited by: pleeker at 6:18 pm (utc) on April 29, 2004]

[cyberfyber]

Hmmmmm, I should start saving up and learning up then on investments again.

This definitely gets my interest.

[Chndru]

woah!

[Chndru]

"An auction is an unusual process for an IPO in the United States," the company said in the filing. "Our experience with auction-based advertising systems has been surprisingly helpful in the auction design process for the IPO. As in the stock market, if people try to buy more stock than is available, the price will go up. And of course, the price will go down if there aren't enough buyers.

Google also revealed it earned $105.6 million on revenue of $961.8 million in the 2003 fiscal year. In the first quarter of 2004, it earned $25.8 million on revenue of $178.9 million.

[thestreet.com...]

[ogletree]

Man that is going to be one expensive stock. I think those people will lose a lot of money in the long run. There is too much hype. It will not go for actual value and Google stock will have a correction and a lot of people will lose money.

I bet some really smart guys will make a killing.

[gopi]

I am confused ...Only "thestreet.com" report says its going for public auction type IPO - others just say Google filed for the IPO

What is the truth?

[ogletree]

You can see the actual filing in the supporters forum.

[CCowboy]

$2.7 billion should give Google a $25 to $27 billion dollar market cap. If they filed today the stock should start trading in the next two weeks!

[Hunter]

It will be months, not weeks.

[zulufox]

I think is cruel and unusual publishment to show titles like this to all of us who can't spend justify $150 on getting in a forum :) :)

Damn teasers...

Of course in 6 months when my sites is making high three digits monthly instead of mid-two digits then I will be changing my tune. :)

[grandpa]

Google got off to a fast start this year, with a first-quarter profit of $64 million, or 24 cents per share - more than doubling its earnings of $25.8 million, or 10 cents per share, at the same time last year.

Can anyone say they didn't see this announcement coming?

[dwilson]

The above-quoted figures suggest there are between 258 and 270 million shares. If all were to be sold, in order to raise 2.7 billion, we would be looking at $10/share or slightly more.

Those who have played in IPO would know more than I on this ... but I'm assuming not all shares will be sold, meaning they expect a higher price. Double that price? How's $20/share sound?

That does make for a pretty lousy P/E ratio ...

[blaze]

Yeesh, just post the link already:

[sec.gov...]

[JeremyL]

In one of its first rebellious steps, Google will refuse to project its earnings from quarter to quarter, according to an open letter that Page and Brin attached to the IPO filing.

[news.yahoo.com...]

[georgeek]

From the S-1 SEC filing [sec.gov]

"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."

[pleeker]

It's interesting to read the S-1 to see the lengths to which G goes to emphasize the likelihood of initial investors losing money in the name of meeting one of their stated goals -- i.e., having a stock that doesn't fluctuate up or down in the first few days after the public trading begins.

I'm no market expert, but I admire this much: They seem to be going about it their way, setting their terms, and saying that if you don't want to go along, you won't be taking part in the auction.

I was also keen to notice in the fine print toward the end that employees have been offered (and did purchase) millions of stock options at 30 to 35 cents a share. Here comes a new round of millionaires, right GoogleGuy? :)

[kellyandsummer]

So is it best to open a Morgan Stanley account to have a crack at the auction?

[HitProf]

Chndru,

Did you check the numbers?

[kellyandsummer]

or will wr hambrecht be conducting the auction?

[Chndru]

ahh.. the benefits of instant-media. i just copy-pasted it and they have updated their newscope. here are the correct numbers from the same source.

Google also revealed it earned $105.6 million on revenue of $961.8 million in the 2003 fiscal year. In the first quarter of 2004, it earned $63.9 million on revenue of $389.6 million.

[thestreet.com...]

[loanuniverse]

You know... They are expensing "stcok based compensation", and if I read the note right some of it might be in the form of options. If they are doing this now, you have to take that into account when comparing the company with competitors.

[xcandyman]

From Wired:

If you take a close look at the form Google filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the exact value of its planned offering is $2,718,281,828 dollars, which some would immediately recognize as the mathematical constant e.

E, for those not blessed with a PhD and a job at Google, is Euler's number, which is used as the base for natural logarithms.

[Gmorgan]

There's quite a bit of info at the BBC news site if anybody is interested:

[news.bbc.co.uk...]

[Jakpot]

Google also revealed it earned $105.6 million on revenue of $961.8 million in the 2003 fiscal year. In the first quarter of 2004, it earned $63.9 million on revenue of $389.6 million.

And where do you think the significant growth in the first quarter of 2004 came from?

[Oetzi]

And where do you think the significant growth in the first quarter of 2004 came from?

Adsense - and I wonder how many more publisher's site are there to increase this revenue