Google Trading Date Announced

[jjpowers]

We have a go for liftoff!

Google (GOOG) as reported in the NYT today 8/17/04 is planning to start formal trading on the NASDAQ exchange Thursday morning.

Observers were suprised at the announcement today as it indicated that Google was satisfied with the level of public interest in the their stock offering, at the price range of $108. to $130.

This information is very positive and should quiet the negative noise on the street.

GO GOOG!

[jjpowers]

It appears that the SEC, after delaying the release of the IPO offering will approve the IPO for GOOG on Thursday, based on news reports this AM, EDT.

As reported by GC's Intelliot, expected initial share prices have been adjusted to the $80. to $90. per share range.

That's the latest from here.

[nikkinouse]

Not quite what they expected, huh.
http://www.canada.com/businesscentre...2-939b35a006d1

SAN JOSE, Calif. (AP) - Google Inc. closed its unusual auction to set its initial stock price Wednesday after dramatically lowering its estimates for the offering, but the Internet search giant did not immediately disclose how much it will cost winning investors to purchase shares of the company.

Despite reducing the number of shares to be sold to 19.6 million from 25.7 million and cutting its estimated price range by nearly a third, the offering is one of the biggest and most highly anticipated for an Internet company, surpassing the hot issues of the dot-com boom.

Before trading begins, the company and its underwriters must announce the share price of the initial sale. The earliest that could happen was 5 p.m. EDT, said a source familiar with the situation. After that, winning bidders will be notified and shares will be allocated.

Investors who bid above the selling price will only pay the per-share IPO price. If there's demand for more than the company's 19.6 million shares, successful bidders may get just a percentage of what they requested.

Once the price is set and initial shares sold, the stock could begin trading, possibly as early as Thursday morning, under the symbol GOOG on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

Google anticipates its shares will be priced between $85 US and $95 each, down from an earlier estimate of between $108 and $135. It could raise $1.86 billion. If the IPO prices at the high end of that range, the company would have a market capitalization of about $25.8 billion, down from the earlier figures as high as $36 billion.

The bumpy IPO process has created several clouds over the company that has been criticized for being too idealistic, arrogant and reckless since it began the IPO process four months ago.

Its prospectus indicates that Google still faces regulatory questions. In one case, it said the SEC "has requested additional information concerning the publication" of an interview of Google founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page that appeared in September's issue of Playboy magazine. That was a potential violation of the SEC's rules against talking publicly before an IPO about information that is not included in the prospectus.

Google also has admitted that the agency has launched an informal inquiry into its issuance of millions of pre-IPO shares and options without registering them.

The auction -another source of controversy -was supposed to democratize the IPO process, which is usually limited to investors connected to investment banks. Still, many analysts questioned whether Google's projected price was affordable to average investors.

Before the surprise announcement early Wednesday, first announced in an e-mail to potential investors, some observers had questioned whether Google's triple-digit price estimate was realistic, given the rocky stock market conditions in recent weeks. Several companies, in fact, have delayed or abandoned plans to go public.