greeneagle
01-06-2004, 03:07 PM
"Google hired Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group to arrange its initial public offering, a sale that might raise as much as $US 4 billion ($5.2 billion), a banker involved in the transaction said.
The sale by Google, the world's most used internet search engine, would be the biggest IPO since CIT Group's $US4.87 billion deal in July 2002. It "will certainly be the deal of the year", said Sanford Robertson, who started private-equity firm Francisco Partners LP."
Get the rest of the story here (http://www.smh.com.au/articles/2004/01/06/1073268033929.html).
ALL OUT WAR!
Ken
ronniethedodger
01-06-2004, 08:03 PM
Two things in this article. First, it looks like the IPO is coming to be reality. But also:
California-headquartered Google might sell a stake of about one-third in the IPO, giving the company a market value of about $US12 billion, the bankers said. The group would probably register the shares for sale this month and sell them by April, they said.
This is about the only information I saw in the article that actually came out of Google's mouth, and it that came thru the banker's mouth and not Google actually.
When asked about any other details Google, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs declined to comment, as did Citigroup, CSFB and JP Morgan who are (apparantly) wrapped up in this venture also.
The interesting point about what was said was the part about they might sell one-third of controlling interest. I am no markert expert, but doesn't this mean that Google will retain 2/3 controlling interest? It appears that they may just be staving off being gobbled up by Microsoft somehow and will continue on with business as usual. Well we can all hope it is business as usual.
The article only mentioned Stanford once, and that was in regards to the origin of the two founders being graduate students there. No mention of the patent though and what that entails.
Outside of the above, I could not see anything else worth noting outside of regular fluff and padding for the article.
Now that the cat is out of the bag of course, we may find out the answer to another question that has been on our minds also. Whether or not Microsoft wants a part of Google. If they do, then I would imagine they will try to make a tender offer to buy the shares before they go public –- which could happen. If Gates wants Google bad enough then they have the money to back it. Or does Gates think he can build his own engine better? or ??? lot's more ors I guess.