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Google Files for IPO

Posted by ryuzaki0 on from the tech-bubble-is-here-again dept.

bobwyman manages to be the first to submit this story, apparently by using his own web service: "Well, the PubSub.com SEC Edgar notification system just sent a message a few minutes ago saying that Google has finally filed their S-1 to go public. See: Google's S-1 which was accepted by the SEC at 2004-04-29T13:53:49-04:00. If you had had a PubSub.com SEC Edgar subscription, you would have been one of the first to see this filing."

12 of 408 comments (clear)

  1. More information by tiltowait · · Score: 5, Informative

    "In the filing, Google said that it generated revenues of $961.9 million in 2003 and reported a net profit of $106.5 million. Sales rose 177 percent from a year ago although earnings increased by just 6 percent." - LISnews.com.

    More stories are available from CNN and The Associated Press.

    1. Re:More information by dgmartin98 · · Score: 4, Informative

      No, of course not.

      They have over 1900 employees. Assuming a typical high-tech business cost of $100-200k per employee (salary + rent + computer + etc...), that's at least $190-380 million in revenue. Then you throw in their big-ass computer farms, their funky colorful office spheres, and their Grateful Dead chef... then $980 million sounds reasonable.

      Dave

      --
      FPGA, Wireless, ASIC, Verilog, VHDL, HW, 10yr exp, Team Lead, Ottawa (More? Email above. slashdotusername=dgmartin98 )
    2. Re:More information by _Sharp'r_ · · Score: 4, Informative

      According to the prospectus:

      1. The stock class they are selling to the public will not have voting rights. The founders will keep those so that they keep control.

      2. They explicitly state that they don't plan to ever pay any dividends.

      So what exactly do you get for buying their stock again, besides knowing you own part of the company and hoping someone else wants to know that for themselves in the future?

      I mean, I love Google and all (and they make me a lot of money every day through Adsense and free search traffic), but where's the incentive to purchase their stock?

      Got to say that this is an awesome racket for the founders to bring in a ton of cash for themselves and their business without giving anything up in exchange, since all the profits just go right back into the company or anywhere else they decide them want the cash to go to.

      --
      The party of stupid and the party of evil get together and do something both stupid and evil, then call it bipartisan.
  2. The Most Info by TheFlyingGoat · · Score: 4, Informative

    Right from the horse's mouth. There's already a crapload of articles. Of note, they're doing a Dutch Auction IPO and want to earn $2.7B, although speculation puts this closer to $20B. The underwriters are Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston.

    --
    You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
  3. Risks by cwis42 · · Score: 5, Informative

    Risks Related to Our Business and Industry

    [...]

    We face significant competition from Microsoft and Yahoo.

    We face competition from other Internet companies, including web search providers, Internet advertising companies and destination web sites that may also bundle their services with Internet access.

  4. Re:Too much hype by TheFlyingGoat · · Score: 5, Informative

    Look into how a Dutch auction IPO works, which is how Google will be doing this. It is a much smarter method for a dot-com type company, especially when people are afraid that the stock will be overpriced. They're doing this the right way.

    --
    You have enemies? Good. That means you've stood up for something, sometime in your life. --Winston Churchill
  5. Upcoming Open Source Alternative to Google... by cybrthng · · Score: 5, Informative

    http://www.mozdex.com :)

    Search engine built on Open Source technologies and will never have to worry about coming too corporate.

    Goal is to use an open api, open algorithm and disclose everything there is about search and search technologies. Will even be launching a blog shortly.

    Well, this isn't about the Google IPO, but it is about an open source project with ambitions to play the game google does without all the corporate mumbo jumbo and no need to IPO.

    Index is about 50 million pages during beta but we are about to roll out our 250 million page corpus.

    Let us know what you think :)

  6. Long Live Google! by ZackSchil · · Score: 5, Informative

    News.com.com reports that you are wrong. To quote:

    In an unusual provision for a technology company, Google will create two classes of shares with different voting rights, a move that aims to guarantee founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will maintain decision-making authority...

    "In our opinion, outside pressures too often tempt companies to sacrifice long-term opportunities to meet quarterly market expectations. Sometimes this pressure has caused companies to manipulate financial results in order to 'make their quarter.' In Warren Buffett's words, 'We won't smooth quarterly or annual results: If earnings figures are lumpy when they reach headquarters, they will be lumpy when they reach you."

    The founders have also fought to maintain their control over the company even as it hired Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt in 2000. According to the document, Page and Brin said that they will run the company as a "triumvirate."

  7. Google IPO links by phazei · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://google-ipo.com/

    That site has been around for a while, a unofficial google ipo watch.

    Useful.

  8. Are you worried google will loose focus? by Pranjal · · Score: 5, Informative



    This will stop your worries

    In an unusual provision for a technology company, Google will create two classes of shares with different voting rights, a move that aims to guarantee founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin will maintain decision-making authority. Such structures have proven beneficial in media companies, such as The New York Times, the filing states.

    So this mean Larry and Sergey will still drive Google and everyone knows how they work. I don't think they will just react how wall street wants them to react.

  9. Post-NASDAQ-crash IPO looms, Congrats! by Ars-Fartsica · · Score: 3, Informative

    NASDAQ is already in a declining pattern, breaking most of its moving averages in a downward position. Google will have the privilege of IPO'ing into a general market selloff.

  10. Google's Release? by SeinJunkie · · Score: 4, Informative

    Just FYI... I didn't see anyone post a link to Google's Press Release about their registration. Maybe I missed it, but there it is.