posted
The efforts of competitors, banks, and other big players on Wall Street to scuttle Google's public offering have failed. Overcoming last minute obstacles, Google simply bypassed the big players and coasted to record sales at its IPO.
quote:Google IPO a success, stocks trade at $100
Google stock started at $100.01 on the Nasdaq, $15.01 higher than its $85 initial offering price.
BY MATTHEW FORDAHL
Associated Press
SAN JOSE, Calif. - Shares of Google surged 18 percent in their market debut Thursday, the culmination of a unique and bumpy initial stock offering for the 6-year-old dot-com dreamed up in a college dorm.
The stock started at $100.01 on the Nasdaq Stock Market, $15.01 higher than its $85 initial offering price. It finished the day at $100.34 with just over 22 million shares having changed hands, making it one of the 10 most actively traded stocks on the Nasdaq.
TRADING DELAY[b]
The IPO price, set late Wednesday through an unorthodox auction that alienated many on Wall Street, cleared the way for the stock to start trading under the symbol ''GOOG.'' Founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page opened trading on the Nasdaq, though Google didn't begin trading until midday.
Nasdaq officials said a delay in trading was standard for IPOs, and added that there were some technical issues as the Nasdaq matched bid and ask prices in the minutes leading up to trading.
The surge may indicate many investors sat on the sidelines for the initial offering, said Barry Randall, portfolio manager for the First American Technology Fund.
''There were a lot of institutional investors who were spooked by not only the initial auction scenario but also the missteps along the way,'' he said. ``I suspect many of them did regard it as a healthy business model, and now they have the ability to purchase the stock from the open market . . . ''
The $85 initial share price was short of Google's original expectation of $108 to $135 a share. It also comes at the lowest end of Google's downward-revised range it made on Wednesday, when it also reduced the number of shares to be sold to 19.6 million from 25.7 million -- a move that was expected to buoy prices.
''The good news for Google is that it didn't price below the low end,'' said Tom Taulli, co-founder of CurrentOfferings, an IPO research company.
The IPO raised $1.67 billion. If the stock had priced at the high end of the original estimate, the offering would have raised as much as $3.6 billion with a market capitalization as high as $36 billion.
According to Google, pre-IPO shareholders expected to sell 5.5 million shares, less than half the 11.6 million originally planned. The company itself sold 14.1 million shares, as originally estimated, putting $1.16 billion into its coffers.
[b]TECH BILLIONAIRES
The offering eclipses most of the hot tech issues of the 1990s and will make Brin and Page billionaires -- at least on paper. Page collected $41.1 million and Brin got $40.9 million, but that pales in comparison to the more than $3 billion each still holds in Google shares.
The $85 price values the world's most popular search engine at $23.1 billion, more valuable than companies such as Amazon.com, with a market capitalization of $16 billion, and Lucent Technologies, valued at $13.5 billion, but slightly less than General Motors Corp.'s $23.7 billion
Two thumbs up!
___________________ No Biafran will be permitted to play Mother Theresa to the Yoruba and Hausa-Fulani, but play Osama Bin Laden to the Igbo or Biafrans! Posts: 1186 | Registered: Mar 2001
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I didn't know you were such a great stock picker too. In your post above of August of 2004, shortly after Google's IPO in May of the same year, you gave two thumbs up to the Google stock . You will be pleased to know that on the first anniversary of Google's IPO, the stock is valued at 170% of its IPO figure.
Many people would be laughing to the bank about now if they taken the hint that you dropped about the Google stock nearly a year ago.
Posts: 133 | Registered: Mar 2001
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I didn't know you were such a great stock picker too. In your post above of August of 2004, shortly after Google's IPO in May of the same year, you gave two thumbs up to the Google stock . You will be pleased to know that on the first anniversary of Google's IPO, the stock is valued at 170% of its IPO figure.
Many people would be laughing to the bank about now if they taken the hint that you dropped about the Google stock nearly a year ago.
Damian,possible double thumbs up tip for the future.www.radiopalmwine.com Nigerias FINEST,no shares available at present,but im first in the que,if this really takes off,Nigeria ,having a 100+million population,will have it making google look like a childs game.i wanted to buy google shares but they were only available to american residents(a bit nasty as the WORLD made them).next time u see a double thumbs up share,please send e/mails to all members of this site(PLEASE)(PRETTY PLEASE)
___________________ WORLD PEACE 4 ALL Posts: 77 | From: the netherlands | Registered: Jul 2005
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