Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Technology Stocks : Alphabet Inc. (Google) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (143)	4/30/2004 3:39:18 PM
From: GVTucker	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15851

Lizzie, RE: I am certain google will be issuing FAR FEWER options than yahoo in the new climate Don't be so certain. Google has quite clearly stated that stock options are a crucial part of their compensation strategy, and will continue to be in the future. Refreshingly, top management is granted no options. They figure they've got plenty of stock already. But Google is very liberal with the stock options to lower level employees. The total stock options issued in 2003 was about 18mm. The total issued by Yahoo was about 20mm. Not too different on absolute terms. On relative terms, Yahoo has more than double the shares outstanding, so Google's options grants could be viewed as greater than Yahoo's. Why are you so certain that Goggle will grant far fewer options to its employees relative to Yahoo?

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (143)	4/30/2004 4:32:05 PM
From: cfimx	Respond to of 15851

>>>thanks, I actually tried to dig some of this stuff up myself but googling google IPO in this frenzy brought up so much junk I got fed up, finally I discovered the actual SEC filing but I haven't been through it yet. ahhh lizzie has provided living proof that search on the Internet has a long long long way to go before its good enough....AVOID GOOGLE at these BUBBLE prices.

To: Lizzie Tudor who wrote (143)	5/2/2004 10:21:17 AM
From: Urlman	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 15851

Reality: To Derive Bid, Use Dow + Pi Your Age By Nancy McKeon Washington Post Staff Writer Sunday, May 2, 2004; Page F01 So Google dropped both shoes at once last week. Not only did the search-engine company announce its much-anticipated initial public offering of stock, but it laid out an unusual method of pricing and selling those shares -- a modified Dutch auction. The thing about this kind of auction is that we investors will be putting the first numbers on the table, each bidder telling Google how much he or she would be willing to pay per share. Then, as befits a search site that uses secret, complex mathematical formulas to find data, Google co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin and their advisers will use a secret, complex mathematical formula to pick the dollar figure they like. If we guess right, we may -- only may, for reasons that are also secret and complex -- win the right to send our money to the guys at Google. But how to figure out how much to bid? Oh, sure, you could read through the financials and calculate the growth rate tied to advertising revenue, more than $100 million last year. And then you could discount that number against the competitors -- Yahoo and Microsoft -- winkling their way into the arena. But that's much too simple. A complicated offering such as Google's deserves complicated calculations. One might be to multiply 35 cents (the cost of each phone call you don't have to make while researching a topic) times the number of times you Google something in the course of a day (3? 17?) times the number of workdays in a leap year (about 240, usually the same as in a non-leap year, silly). That gives you a rather wide range -- $252 to $1,428 per share -- but what the heck. But that's taking this offering far too seriously, says Allan Sloan, Wall Street editor for Newsweek magazine, whose Deals column appears in The Post. "Here's what you do," he said sternly. "If you live in an urban area, you go out and you examine pigeon droppings." For what? "Just examine them. They'll tell you what to do." Pause. "If you live in a rural area, you can work with chicken droppings." Washington Post Magazine humor columnist Gene Weingarten, while feigning ignorance of things financial, was equally firm in his method. "What you're dealing with is a calculation of your own importance," he said in a voice-mail message. "So [your bid] would be directly proportional to the number of Google hits on your own name. [Click.]" Several Wall Street traders contacted demurred, saying they had yet to read through all of Google's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission. David R. Kotok, chairman and chief investment officer of the Vineland, N.J., money-management firm Cumberland Advisors Inc., was more forthcoming. He said it was "wonderful" that Google had elected to take its offering directly to the public and "bypass Wall Street and all its scandalous behavior." He predicted the offering would be oversubscribed, its price determined in the freest market possible, and said he hoped its success would lead other companies to attempt the same thing. He was also driven to verse for the occasion: "Hooray, hooray for the first of May The EU was set to enlarge yesterday. They tried to announce it by blowing their bugle, But the markets ignored them, going ga-ga over Google." Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan was not contacted for rhyme or comment. © 2004 The Washington Post Company washingtonpost.com