[LINK] Google spells out share offer details

[Tom Worthington]

 From ABC Radio <http://www.abc.net.au/pm/content/2004/s1163276.htm>, not 
from the Link Institute. ;-)

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Google spells out share offer details, PM - Tuesday, 27 July , 2004  18:44:39
Reporter: Karen Percy

MARK COLVIN: It doesn't seem so long ago that investors, especially in 
America, would buy into almost any new stock that involved the internet. 
That all changed with the tech wreck, but now they're queuing up again for 
an internet offering.

The reason is the stock being offered is that of the phenomenally 
successful search engine, Google. If nothing else, at well over US $100 a 
share, it will be the priciest initial public offering in years.

But in what could be seen as a bad omen, those keen to get online for the 
details were shut out after Google's website was hit by a virus.

Karen Percy reports.

KAREN PERCY: Next month, close to 25 million shares will go on sale in one 
of the most anticipated share market offerings in years.

 From humble beginnings in a suburban garage on the outskirts of San Jose, 
California, Google has become the world's most successful internet search 
engine.

Tom Worthington is from the Computer Society of Australia.

TOM WORTHINGTON: The Google float is a vote of confidence that the bad days 
of the dot-com bubble are behind us.

KAREN PERCY: Google is expected to raise well over US $3-billion from the 
float, with an expected issue price of anywhere from US $110 to US $140 per 
share.

But those kinds of prices have barely been seen since the dot-com bubble 
burst, and by selling less than 10 per cent of the company to the public, 
Google will still be controlled by the company's founders, Sergey Brin and 
Larry Page, and Google's staff.

In the US, Standard and Poors' analyst, Scott Kessler, is also concerned 
about the timing of the offering.

SCOTT KESSLER: August is kind of well known for not a very active month 
when it comes to investing, particularly for institutional investors. Add 
to that the fact that you are going to be book ended by both the Democratic 
and Republican political conventions as well as having the Olympics smack 
dab in the middle of the month. That strikes me as kind of a curious time 
to bring such a prominent IPO public.

KAREN PERCY: No sooner were the details out, than the company was let down 
by technology, as the "mydoom" virus infected the site and effectively 
shutdown its operations for two hours.

Tom Worthington, almost as soon as the details were out for Google's IPO, 
the mydoom virus pretty much shut down its operations. Is that a bad omen 
for the company maybe?

TOM WORTHINGTON: It's not clear at this stage whether the mydoom virus was 
just targeted at Google in particular. It actually hit other search engines 
as well. I don't really see it as some sort of targeted campaign against 
Google.

KAREN PERCY: Do you think that this is going to open the way for more 
companies to perhaps go down this route because there haven't been a lot of 
IPOs for technology companies for some time because of what happened when 
the dot-com bubble burst?

TOM WORTHINGTON: I think one of the lessons we have to keep in mind from 
the dot-com bubble is that there aren't really a lot of good ideas out 
there that are going to be exploited. So there aren't necessarily a lot of 
Googles out there and also it is not necessarily the good idea that wins 
the market. It's, you've got to make it into a good product. There's a lot 
of technologists that think they have got a clever idea and the world will 
come to their door and it really isn't like that and there is a lot of work 
needed.

KAREN PERCY: As yet it's not known exactly when Google will start trading 
on the NASDAQ.

MARK COLVIN: Karen Percy.
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