Google Stock's Wacky Debut
Though the 18 percent jump boosted the paper worth of Google shareholders and insiders, it also raised questions about the effectiveness of the unorthodox auction, which was designed to gauge true demand and set a rational price that wouldn't be subject to big swings.
"It seemed like the whole purpose of the auction was to prevent that kind of big move from happening," said Barry Randall, portfolio manager for the First American Technology Fund. "If it's not a failure, it clearly didn't work the way Google's management intended it."
Google shares finished the day at $100.34 with more than 22 million shares having changed hands, making it among the 10 most active issues on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The closing price was $15.34 higher than the final IPO price set by the auction, but still lower than the $108 bottom of the company's initial range.
A few minutes before the shares officially opened for trading Thursday, the market saw a false start when the shares appeared to debut at $136. But a Nasdaq official said this was the result of two trades that "should not have gone through."
Nasdaq declined to comment further.
The stock's performance isn't likely to generate many complaints at Google, its underwriters or anyone else holding the appreciating stock. But it's a letdown for the company, which only profits from the 14 million initial shares it sold at $85 each, and pre-IPO shareholders who sold 5.5 million at the same price.
In the end, the IPO raised $1.67 billion. If the stock had priced at $135 -- the high end of Google's original estimate -- the offering would have raised as much as $3.6 billion and given the company a market capitalization as high as $36 billion. Google downgraded the estimated range early Wednesday.
Google declined to comment. Its quiet period extends for another 25 days, said spokeswoman Cindy McCaffrey. Still, in true dot-com fashion, a scheduled summer picnic planned for Friday in a park near Google's Mountain View headquarters is expected to turn into an IPO party.
The offering made co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page billionaires -- at least on paper. From IPO share sales, Page collected $41.1 million and Brin got $40.9 million, but that pales in comparison to the more than $3 billion each still holds in Google stock.
Employees who bought stock on the cheap or were granted options also stand to profit handsomely. Within the next 180 days, they will be allowed to sell shares and pocket real cash.
"There's going to be a lot of liquidity that hits the street over the next couple of months," said Scott Kessler, an internet equity analyst at Standard & Poor's.
An estimated 950 to 1,050 of Google's nearly 2,300 employees are paper millionaires, according to an analysis done by Salary.com, which tracks employee compensation.
"There are going to be some pretty good parties in the Bay Area this evening -- probably not a lot of work getting done at Google tomorrow," said Bill Coleman, the firm's senior vice president of compensation.
Celebrations, however, are likely to be more muted in the offices of Google's underwriters, who will share just $46.7 million for handling the IPO, according to a filing Thursday. That's just a 2.8 percent commission, a fraction of the typical 7 percent they usually receive.
Google's lead underwriters, Credit Suisse First Boston and Morgan Stanley, refused to comment, citing the quiet period.
Google's IPO price was set Wednesday after the close of the auction in which would-be investors bid how much they thought the company to be worth. All winning bidders paid the same price -- one that guaranteed the sale of all 19.6 million shares.
Though the so-called Dutch auction was designed to open the IPO beyond large investors who typically get first access to new stock issues, that's not what actually happened, said David Garrity, a technology analyst in New York with Caris & Co.
"It was supposed to democratize the process and let people buy in at just a few shares, but it was a miserable failure because the organizers didn't realize the securities regulations that require people who bid to have a certain net worth," he said.
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