Google Announces Nasdaq Float

cycleburner writes "The Financial Times reports that Google will list its shares on the Nasdaq stock market, ending months of speculation over whether the world's most used internet search engine would pick Nasdaq or its larger rival, the New York Stock Exchange. Apparently: 'Winning the Google listing is a big victory for Nasdaq, whose dominance of trading in technology stocks has come under concerted attack from the NYSE. Google's likely stock market value has been estimated by some analysts at more than $40bn, a level that would turn it overnight into one of the 10 most valuable US tech companies.' Reuters/ABC News has more information on the announcement."

Comments

YRO?

[Otter]

Sorry, which of our Rights Online are involved here? Also, Simon, it's customary to append a sentence or two to the end of YRO posts to tell us what conclusion to reach. We're uncomfortable thinking about these things without patronizing explanations from Michael Sims.

Re:YRO?

[Fizzl]

I tried to think of something snappy to say but only thing I could think of was: "Google turns evil"

Then I thought "From where in the hell did that thought come from?"

Must be the provocating colour scheme of YRO. Didn't even notice it was YRO before reading your post :)

*Mmmmmm* Subliminal messages.

Re:YRO?

[Anonymous Coward]

I don't agree with much on Google Watch, but they think the YRO connection is clear.

Re:YRO?

[cft_128]

I had the exact same thought when I was reading the story... Maybe with all the gmail stories this was some sort of YRO knee-jerk categorization. Another possibility is that here at slashdot all large corporations are evil and must be violating our rights somehow.

Come to think of it, that conclusion is probably true more often than not. sad.

Re:YRO?

[Anonymous Coward]

It's particularly ironic that Michael Sims, of all people, would be patronizing others about online rights...seeing as how he basically hijacked a website himself and all.

No surprise...

[nlh]

This should come as no surprise to most people, and it would seem fitting that a company so focused on "the right way" would pick the stock market with both a superior (from an efficiency perspective) and more technological solution.

Frankly, I'm surprised that companies still list on NYSE at all. Sure, there are merits to the specialist system (fair & orderly marketplace, yadda yadda yadda), but anyone who actively trades NYSE stocks knows that in the end, the specialist is just like the rest of us -- out to make money for himself. Yes, there are market-makers on NASDAQ who are also out to make money and can game the market to some extent, but it's an order of magnitude better than the NYSE's way of doing things.

So just like Google's choice of an auction to price & distribute the shares, the selection of NASDAQ is a vote against the "old way" (more middlemen and old boys to pocket fees).

Re:No surprise...

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Of course, if they were really focused on doing things the right way, they'd insist upon YEARLY filing of profit/loss statements instead of QUARTERLY- that being the main problem I've ever seen with going public (suddenly your investors, most of whom are complete computer illiterates and PHBs, expect you to turn a profit in three months on a project that takes six).

Re:No surprise...

[duffbeer703]

The specialists obviously makes money for himself, but often puts his own money on the line to maintain an orderly market.

top 10??!! no way

[grimani]

top 10? with only 40b?

that's doubtful

microsoft
cisco
ibm
hp
dell
intel
oracle
ebay
sap
nokia

all above 40b, i'm sure.

Re:top 10??!! no way

[Too Much Noise]

erm ... maybe I'm missing the obvious here, but how are SAP and Nokia US companies?

So what's the stock symbol going to be?

[TMLink]

OOOO?

Re:top 10??!! no way

[molo]

Good call.

Market caps:

MSFT: 301 bln
CSCO: 150 bln
IBM: 143 bln
HPQ: 61 bln
DELL: 89 bln
INTC: 169 bln
ORCL: 57 bln
EBAY: 55 bln
SAP: 49 bln
NOK: 67 bln

Say goodbye to a good company

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Next thing they'll know they'll have a bunch of PHBs wondering why GMail has yet to turn a profit. Or worse yet, killing GMail because it hasn't turned a profit in the last three months, which is about how far a PHB focused on stock price can see.

Re:Say goodbye to a good company

[Orick]

No they won't, because they've structured the stock offering so that the stock purchasers:

1. Get no control at all. The current ownership retains voting control.

2. Get no dividends back. In the prospective they essentially promise no dividends, ever.

So what do you get with your Google stock? The right to try to sell it to some other sucker later on.

Re:Say goodbye to a good company

[Marxist Hacker 42]

That makes it all the worse- because certainly the key descision makers in the company are getting some stock, and thus they will have reason to try to keep the stock price up so that they ARE able to sell it to some other sucker down the road.

Which leads us back to the main problem of a technology company being in the stock market at all- myopia. The three month reporting scheme might make for a nice market trade volume, but it's death for any long term research project.

Re:Say goodbye to a good company

[tehcyder]

At the risk of stating the obvious, if you're a company and want to get publicly listed, you have to start thinking about your shareholders and tedious things like quarterly earnings, profit forecasts, share price and so on.

The alternative is to stay as a private company. No-one's forcing Google to go public.

Re:Say goodbye to a good company

[Marxist Hacker 42]

Exactly. And what I'm saying is that good companies stay private- going public is ALWAYS a bad idea for a technology company. Because NONE of those things, shareholders, quarterly earnings, profit forecasts, or share price have ANYTHING TO DO WITH INNOVATION- and every second spent worrying about them is a second lost to time thinking aobut your next great invention or killer application. Going public is a HUGE drain on productivity at best- and a project killer at worst.

Re:top 10??!! no way

[dthree]

We won't know for sure until the required financials come out, but I really wonder if their sales will back up a 40b market cap or will it be "irrational exuberance" all over again.

Shares price

[Tyreth]

What's the deal with Google shares. Is it possible for the average Joe with some money to buy some of this float? How much is it? I couldn't work it out when I was looking a few months ago.

Re:Shares price

[Anonymous Coward]

Isn't it a dutch auction style IPO? And believe it will be difficult to get any of that unless you're some big investor? But after that it's just like any other stock. I expect it to be overvalued in that initial phase.

Too bad about Google

[mbstone]

They say the IPO has to happen by the end of the next two weeks or else Google has to refile with the SEC. And tech stocks have been in the dumper this month.

Re:Too bad about Google

[Frisky070802]

Maybe this is what will help lift them out of the doldrums?

Price: It will cost as much as it turns out to

[clsc]

How much is it?

Basically they establish some advanced internet based thingy that will allow you and everyone else (but not their dogs) to state:

1) How many stocks you wish to buy
2) At which price you wish to buy that amount

So, the average Joe might get in on it, at least that was the general idea behind all this fancy internet-auction stuff.

Re:Price: It will cost as much as it turns out to

[Martin Blank]

Dammit... And I was looking to upgrade my computer this month.

Upgrade... or invest in Google?

Someone hates me to make me have to choose between those two.

Re:top 10??!! no way

[Martin Blank]

They're not, but they are traded on the NYSE, so they're included in those market caps.