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Strategies & Market Trends : 2026 TeoTwawKi ... 2032 Darkest Interregnum -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: TobagoJack who wrote (4644)	3/2/2006 11:39:16 PM
From: elmatador	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 217618

Google CEO's cryptic remark``Building the systems and infrastructure of a global $100 billion company.'' Then he looked out at the audience and said, ``I'll leave it as an exercise to you as to whether Google means $100 billion in revenue or valuation.'' keeps shareholders in the dark By Mike Langberg linec Mercury News Shame on you, Eric Schmidt, for making a flip remark about a topic crucial to the information-starved Google shareholders. During his opening speech Thursday to a group of financial analysts gathered at Google's Mountain View headquarters, chief executive officer Schmidt showed a slide listing priorities for 2006. The final priority: ``Building the systems and infrastructure of a global $100 billion company.'' Then he looked out at the audience and said, ``I'll leave it as an exercise to you as to whether Google means $100 billion in revenue or valuation.'' That's not an exercise. It's a slap in the face to investors, given Google's arrogant refusal to give guidance on how it expects to perform in the future. Valuation is the dollar total for all of a company's stock. At Thursday's closing price of $376.45 a share, Google's valuation is $111.2 billion. Google's revenue in 2005 stood at $6.1 billion. So if Schmidt is really talking about market value, he's wasting everyone's time in listing a goal the Internet search company has already achieved. If he's talking about revenue, he's announcing a significant and ambitious goal. Hitting $100 billion in sales would make Google the biggest company in Silicon Valley, putting it ahead of long-time leaders such as Hewlett-Packard and Intel. But it's hard to imagine Google getting there anytime soon, not with the company dropping hints lately that its growth rate is slowing. Even if Google somehow managed to sustain an annual growth rate of 92 percent -- the amount sales increased from 2004 to 2005 -- it wouldn't hit $100 billion until 2010. If the growth rate drops to a still respectable 25 percent a year, Google won't join the $100-billion club until 2018. Obviously, investors deserve to know if Google is serious about reaching $100 billion in revenue -- and how soon. Schmidt, meanwhile, owes Google's shareholders an apology accompanied by a clear, non-sarcastic explanation.