NEWS With their Midas-touch image tarnished over their controversial initial public offering, Google's founders have this to hold on to - they pulled off their IPO, and they did it their way.
Sinatra would have been proud.
In the end, Google was able to launch its offering, despite the informal inquiry the US Securities and Exchange Commission conducted into the company's stock options, the high-profile article in Playboy magazine, a shrinking deal size and IPO price and investor anger over two classes of stock and a lack of guidance on future financial performance.
Despite those handicaps, Google and selling shareholders raised $1.66bn - making it among the largest IPOs in history - and the stock climbed 18 per cent in the debut to close slightly above $100.
Bruce Lupatkin, a general partner at money management firm Hangar Four Partners, said: "The news is: They got the deal done. And it's definitely successful. Any time a stock trades up from the offering on the day of the IPO, by my measure, it's a success."
Lupatkin said investment bankers get nervous when a stock trades down on debut, because investors sometimes take that as a sign that the stock is "broken."
"So, if I wear my investment-banking hat, it was perfectly executed at the end, despite the other wiggles and waggles," he said. "If I wear my investor's hat, time will tell if it was successful."
Dawn Kawamoto writes for News.com
Comments
There is 1 comment. Join the discussion
1. Andrew Whitney
Congratulations Google - one in the eye for all the naysayers, the investment bankers, and their pals.
Google has changed the face of the web, on this subject there can be no argument, but it goes way beyond that; it's now the cheap alternative to directory enquiries, the source of countless bargains and efficiencies and the ultimate arbiter of just about every pub argument.
And yet despite all this, the naysayers were lining up to crow over a few minor difficulties encountered on the road to reinventing the entire IPO market.
I don't know what's more astonishing: Google's success, or cacophony from the routed lot in the peanut gallery.
Go Google!