Slashdot Mirror


Google Takes Top Spot From Time Warner

newfoundry writes "BBC News reports that Google hit $80bn on the NYSE yesterday, so is now worth more than Time Warner..."

6 of 477 comments (clear)

  1. How much further until they surpass Microsoft? by CyricZ · · Score: 4, Interesting

    How much further until they surpass Microsoft?

    --
    Cyric Zndovzny at your service.
  2. More than TW??!! by Mad-Mage1 · · Score: 5, Interesting

    I mean come on, this is so completely unrealistic that ity smacks of the old days of the Internet Bubble. TW at least has real assets that can be valued, while Google is primarily a IP (intellectual property) company. Yes they do make search devices, yes they do have a Proven (albeit short) track record of innovation, but valuing this company at that figure is totally over-reaching. Their P/E ratio is so over-blown that no serious investor can look at this as anything other than a over-correction based upon the fact that Google is an Internet darling and one of the few that surivived the purge and actually PROFITED.

    --
    The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants.
  3. Google Should Buy GM or Ford by Doug+Dante · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Both have Market caps at about $18B. If Google were to make a strategic investment of $5-9B in either or both, they could run the internal IT as well as insert Google things in cars. Employee e-mail, calendar, document management, and search by Google, Google maps and yellow pages in the cars, etc.

    --
    The world will not get better through technology. We must seek to be better people.
  4. Wrong by Prien715 · · Score: 4, Interesting

    TW at least has real assets that can be valued, while Google is primarily a IP (intellectual property) company.

    Correct me if I'm wrong, but the vast majority of TW's worth is their film/music catalogue. Which is um...IP.

    Google's major earnings come not from licensing IP, but from advertising revenue, making it not unlike a traditional media outlet (e.g. TV station) as far as revenue model goes.

    I would agree with your earnings assement. Google has shown that they can grow fast while remaining profitable on a sustainable revenue model. Does anyone remember the companies during the .Com era actually making profits? Certain tech companies (IBM, MS, Apple) on the other hand, have managed to justify these high IPO values since their stock rises are now near-legendary on wall street.

    --
    -- Political fascism requires a Fuhrer.
  5. Re:I think this calls for a googlegasm by anaesthetica · · Score: 4, Interesting

    You certainly can compare 100 years ago to today. There has been no fundamental revolution in the way business is done or organized--incremental changes to the rules don't comprise some sort of historical discontinuity.

    I think you underestimate the level of power that was once directly wielded by corporations. All you need to do is read a book about the Robber Barron era and you'll see what they got away with. They rather openly bought and sold Senators, rather than the timid influencing with perks and donations that corporations are allowed today. They could (legally) raise private militias and use them against other U.S. citizens if they unionized or agitated.

    Our government rightly broke them up. Microsoft doesn't nearly have the power that the old corporations once had. Not even close.

    The successor corporations have all declined. As they grew weaker they had to enter into mergers, rebrand themselves, get bought, etc. in order to arrest their decline. New companies developing new technologies are continually undermining the foundations of the old companies, and will continue to do so, until private enterprise is outlawed.

  6. Re:I think this calls for a googlegasm by anaesthetica · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I agree with this: unearned power, priveledge, and position are quite clearly antithetical to the spirit of free enterprise. This is one reason why I am staunchly against the Republican repeal of the inheritance tax. Stupid, stupid idea.