Google IPO Open for Registration

Jon Shoberg writes "Google IPO is open for bid registration. From the front page: 'A registration statement relating to Google's Class A common stock has been filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission but has not yet become effective. Google's Class A common stock may not be sold nor may offers to buy be accepted prior to the time the registration statement becomes effective. This communication shall not constitute an offer to sell or the solicitation of an offer to buy nor shall there be any sale of Google's Class A common stock in any state in which such offer, solicitation or sale would be unlawful prior to registration or qualification under the securities laws of any such state. No offer to buy shares of Google's Class A common stock can be accepted and no part of the purchase price can be received until the registration statement has become effective, and any such offer may be withdrawn or revoked, without obligation or commitment of any kind, at any time until the notice of acceptance is sent after the effective date. Of the shares to be sold in Google's initial public offering of Class A common stock, 14,142,135 shares will be issued and sold by Google and 10,494,524 of the shares will be sold by the selling stockholders.'"

Comments

Re:can I have some clarification

[rwiedower]

Here's some information on how an IPO works. As for what google means, that's just silly.

Re:Interesting...

[smooth wombat]

The above may sound like an advertisement but what Google has posted is standard boilerplate language. When dealing with securities and 'advertising' them you are simply putting the word out that company X has such-and-such securities which you as the public may want to purchase.

Yeah, I know, talk about semantics. Having worked in the financial industry for a time I can tell you there are other oddities that neither you nor I would think of. For instance, did you know that giving a stock quote is considered selling and that if you are not licensed you cannot, legally, give a quote to someone?

Re:*sigh*

[Fortunato_NC]

An IPO is *supposed* to be a financing event. It's only with the dotcom boom that a perception has arisen that the IPO is when you "cash-out" of a company. Traditionally, a company would consider an IPO to raise cash for expansion - it's a means to and end, not an end in itself.

The way Google is conducting their IPO indicates that they view it as a traditional financing event - the higher the IPO price, the more money that's available to the company to expand and grow. In Netscape's IPO, for example, the stock may have closed at $80 at the end of the first trading day, but Netscape itself only realized the $14/share that the offering was priced at. You can bet your bottom dollar that despite all the hype, someone was getting his butt chewed for leaving $66/share on the table. Google's auction doesn't eliminate the possibility of something like this happening, but it does reduce it significantly.