Slashdot Mirror
Even the Masseuse is a Multimillionaire at Google
PCOL writes "The NY Times is running a story on how stock options that have given an estimated 1,000 employees at Google a net worth of $5 million each affects the culture at Google. Google gives each of its new employees stock options, as well as a smaller number of shares of Google stock, as a recruiting incentive. The average options grant for a "Noogler" (new Google employee) who started a year ago was 685 shares at a price of roughly $475 a share which at last Friday's close would be worth $128,000. But employees say Google is different from other large high-tech companies where the day's stock price is a fixture on many people's computer screens. "It isn't considered 'Googley' to check the stock price," said one engineer adding that it is also considered unseemly to discuss the price with other employees. And the masseuse? In 1999 Bonnie Brown answered an ad for an in-house masseuse at Google "on a lark" and after five years of kneading engineers' backs, she retired, cashing in most of her stock options to travel the world, oversee a charitable foundation she founded, and write a book, still unpublished, titled "Giigle: How I Got Lucky Massaging Google.""
You can have all the capital in the world, but if you don't have a way to transform it into a revenue stream, your business isn't worth as much as your stock price. Google's current revenue stream comes from advertisements. Fine, that's a valid model. But i have no idea if its actually recouping the costs of all the projects they have going on.
Umm... Maybe you should spend an hour or so learning 'investing 101' before 'insightfully' guessing about whether google may or my not be profitable. Really, it would behoove you to learn to read a balance sheet.
In the qtr that ended in September, google made $11.8B in revenue and earned $3B in PROFIT after taxes.