IPO - The Best or Worst Move in DotCom History?
Google has finally announced the long awaited (Initial Public Offering) IPO.
'Tenterhooks' is a good word to describe the general atmosphere surrounding the move. The optimists are proclaiming it a success already, while the more pessimistic observer is forecasting doom and gloom.
For the optimist, the picture is clear: Google auctions the shares to the public, the 'little guy' gets to buy a fistful of share certificates and everyone makes a tidy sum when Google goes from strength to strength and remains the Search Engine heavyweight despite the best efforts of Yahoo! and Microsoft.
The pessimistic viewpoint is one of corporate greed, with huge financial institutes desperate to grab their slice of the vast money-making SE market. As the furore rises to a crescendo of screaming share-traders fighting one another for the limited amount of Google share certificates which have mysteriously found their way from the hands of the 'little guy' to the fat-fingered-fists of shady middlemen, the price of shares rise to astronomical levels. Google is proclaimed the new Microsoft and is valued at $30 billion.
When the dust settles, the business model of Google is carefully examined. Suddenly, the markets get the jitters and all but the 'faithful' start selling, selling, selling; the price of shares plummet and Google is revalued a year and a half later at $3 billion. Enquires are launched, fingers are pointed ...