Google Chooses An Underwriter For Upcoming IPO

PenguinSix writes "Bloomberg and a bunch of others are reporting that Google has hired Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to arrange its initial public offering. This follows literally years of rumors and stories about a Google IPO. About a third of Mountain View, California-based Google may be sold in the IPO, giving the company a market value of about $12 billion, the bankers said." Google has become so invaluable to many people (like me) that they could probably raise just as much money with a blackmail scheme.

Comments

Blackmail.. maybe worse...

[grub]

..they could probably raise just as much money with a blackmail scheme.

I was thinking along the lines of:

Dearest Sir or Madam,
Our names are Sergey Brin and Larry Page. We created
Google. This letter may come as a suprise to you
being as we have never met. A mutual friend, however,
suggested we contact you. There is an impending IPO
which will make our firm worth 12 BILLION U.S. DOLLARS
($12,000,000,000). To release this money, we ask that
you join us in a business partnership....

Now all we have to do...

[lasmith05]

Is figure out a way us regular mortals to get in on the IPO. :D

Google - "Pineapple-Upsidedown-Beans"

[ackthpt]

Buy Google Stock!

I'd prefer to see Google sell shares right over the internet through their website, maybe allow you to buy via an online payment service or other immediate means, such as credit card (with a validation period or something like that to prevent fraud.) I'd probably buy a few shares just 'cause I think they'd look cool in frames and would make great geek gifts! :-)

Google's geek following is strong, it would be a shame if a bunch of suits were owners. Good idea to keep it to only 1/3, but how long will that last?

GOO appears available as a stock ticker symbol.

Regarding blackmail, how so? Hasn't Google already been under the scope for fixing searches? Seems a dodgy thing to do once you're publicly traded, but fine as long as you're privately held.

Please stay private...

[GuyMannDude]

Is there anyone else here who is thinking that having such an invaluable internet tool now subject to the whims of public investors is not such a great thing? I would have rathered that Google stay private forever. That way they can make decisions based on what they think is best, not what will increase their stock price the most next quarter.

GMD

Re:I think I'll buy some

[psychogentoo]

Is she cute?

Dammit Google, I love you

[eclectro]

Dear Google,

I have been seriously evaluating our relationship, and I've concluded you are not offering me what I need to be happy. I feel it is time for me to move on.

Yes, I know it's hard. We did have some good times together. Remember those times when you had "beta" in your name? Then came the time you bought and saved the Dejanews archive. I will always admire you for that. Then there was the time you added News search and Froogle. And all those times that you put those funny little cartoons in your name on holidays and on the birthdays of famous artists? Ahh, those were the days.

But those days are gone. Lately, you have been neglecting my needs as more and more results are being skewed by "link farming."

Then your eyes started to wander, and you started to pursue this illicit "shareholder love." You were wooed by this new lover that had a big wad of cash in his pocket.

Dear, no person can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other, or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. There are just too many search engines piled on the heap who whore out search results to the highest bidder. They think that they will never be caught, but eventually they are always found out.

You are just scaring me too much for me to take it anymore. I think it's best for both of us to find some therapy and move on.

Love,

eclectro

Be Careful: Use Buy Limit Orders

[G4from128k]

If you do buy Google on day 1, don't use a market order (especially in the first minutes). If the IPO becomes a feeding frenzy, you could easily end up paying 2 or 3 times what you expected (and yes, your broker WILL hold you to that price, no matter how bad it is). Instead, use a buy limit order to ensure that you pay no more than your target price for the stock. With a limit order it is possible that you will get no shares (if the stock blows past your price). On the other hand, you are ensured that you won't get shares at some outrageous price.

Re:I think I'll buy some

[Monkelectric]

I really wouldn't buy GOOGLE stock. Aren't their profits reported to be somewhere in the 200 million dollar a year range? A 12 Billion dollar IPO is designed to do one thing: allow those who issue themselves the stock before hand to become wealthy.

This is another netscape boys, and a sign that the powers that be have decided to cash out on google.

Re:IPO: It's Probably Overpriced

[daveo0331]

Traditionally IPO shares are initially sold at a fixed price, which tends to be below the price it will sell for in the first few days on the open market. The insiders then have a tendency to allocate IPO shares to their buddies, or family, or the bank handling the IPO, or whoever. Therefore people with "connections" can (essentially) get free money by buying IPO shares and then selling them quickly. If you are lucky enough to have access to this free money, it's in your best interest to take it.

Since the Google IPO is being done differently, there's no opportunity for insiders or anyone else to buy shares below fair market value -- buying IPO shares during the auction gives you about the same price you'd get on the open market 5 minutes after the auction ends. Therefore, nobody gets "free money" as is usually the case in IPOs. This allows Google to raise money more efficiently which, incidentally, is the point of holding an auction in the first place.

Re:Be Careful: Use Buy Limit Orders

[Frisky070802]

You never know... I put in a limit order for Akamai's IPO at 100, and was excited when I saw it was at 114 until I realized my order never executed. So I cancelled it and stewed, and watched it keep going up the 1st day, only to jump in an hour later at $145. I saw it go up to maybe $345 and put in a stop loss order to sell at $245 on the way back down. (I'd have sold earlier but my wife insisted we not bail too early).

Obviously things have changed since 1999 (or whenever this happened). But while I agree with you completely that a limit order is good for ensuring your exposure is limited, people may want to place that limit pretty high, depending on how desperate they are to buy in. And anyone who is risk-averse should of course stay far away, or at least wait to see how the wind blows.