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发帖数: 3292 | 1 The IPO of Google
The IPO of Google, Inc., illustrates the timeline for private equity. Google
was incorporated in 1998 with an initial investment of US$1,000,000 by
family, friends, and angel investors. In early 1999, Google received US$25
million in venture capital funds. The two venture capital firms that
provided capital in 1999 each own about 10.2 percent of the company. In
April 2004, Google filed for an IPO. The IPO date was 19 August 2004, with
Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston as the lead underwriters in an
unusual (for equities) Dutch auction–style auction, which affords more
access to shares by smaller investors. The offering was for approximately 19
.6 million shares of Class A common stock. Of that number, approximately 4.5
million shares were from sell- ing shareholders realizing part of the cash
value of their shareholdings, including company founders Larry Page and
Sergey Brin. The offering was at US$85 per share and raised about US$1.2
billion for Google and US$464 million for the selling shareholders. After
the offering, about 33.6 million Class A shares and about 237.6 million
privately held Class B shares were outstanding. The Class B shares, held by
the founders and other executives and investors, had 10 votes per share (
versus 1 vote per share for the Class A shareholders). This dual-stock
structure was viewed as unusual in technology IPOs, but it had been used by
media companies, such as the New York Times. It permitted insiders to
maintain voting con- trol over Google and, according to Google executives,
protected the company from pressures felt by public companies to produce
short-term performance. At the same time, the Class B shares were
convertible to the registered Class A shares, so the investing group could
access public markets to realize the cash values of their holdings in the
future. The August 2004 IPO was oversubscribed, and the shares (NASDAQ: GOOG
) rose about 18 percent in initial trading. On 14 September 2005, Google
made a follow-on offering of about 14.2 million shares at US$295 per share
that raised US$4.18 billion. On 31 March 2006, Google was added to the S&P
500.
Sources: Reuters, “Key Dates in the History of Google” and “Update: Brin,
Page Lead List of Google Shareholders,” both on 29 April 2004 at www.
google-ipo.com. |
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