Posted on 02/12/2006 9:59:46 PM PST by george76
INVESTORS HAVE BEEN FIXATED on Google the past few weeks, as its shares have tumbled nearly 25% from a peak of $475 -- and the fact is, there could be a lot more tumbling ahead.
The share price could well be cut in half over the next year as the Internet giant grapples with growing competition from Microsoft and Yahoo!, increased pricing pressures in its online ad sales and mounting concern about what's known as click fraud.
Suffice it to say, there are those who disagree...
But the list of challenges the company faces is nothing short of mind-googling.
As if Microsoft weren't enough, the search concern is headed for brawls with content providers like newspaper and book publishers.
Phone and cable firms may also join the fray. Google's cost structure, meanwhile, is ballooning, with the company hiring thousands of new workers and mulling projects as far afield as space travel.
If Google trips on even a few of the challenges, its earnings could easily disappoint.
Google has been operating right in the sweet spot of the advertising world: ads placed on Internet searches.
Yahoo! and Microsoft's MSN portal are expected to improve their search offerings. In the second half of this year, Yahoo! hopes to improve its systems so that search-engine ads are more relevant to search results and therefore more likely to be clicked.
Microsoft, for its part, plans to introduce Windows Live Search...
eBay, Priceline (PCLN) and Travelocity, owned by Sabre Holdings (TSG), have mentioned "an unsustainable level of spending" on search advertising...
(Excerpt) Read more at online.barrons.com ...
Are you implying that I shouldn't have taken that 2nd on my house and rolled the proceeds into Google?
GREAT MOVE!
Greenspan is chuckling as Bill Gates gets ready for the market adjustment...and the takeover.
Well, I'll just sell first thing tomorrow morning, before anybody else notices.
I mean, how bad could it be?
It does annoy me, though. Google going to $600 was a sure thing. CNBC said so.
Put your money on it too.
"Earnings would be 30% lower than the bull's projection, at $6.28 a share."
"If the stock were to maintain its current multiple of 41 on those lowered earnings, it would be worth $257."
"It's more likely the multiple would shrink to as low as 30, in line with the slower growth. That would make the stock worth $188, versus its recent $360."
You know, I've got this guy sending me stock names on these pink sheets of paper. They're all really cheap, like less than a buck.
Maybe I'll roll my Google proceeds into them. He says they're a sure thing.
I've got to do something, since the interest rate on my 110% second is due to go up in a month or so. Fortunately, no one has ever lost money on Real Estate here in California, so I think I'm still ok.
Google gave us the first genuine internet search engine. I don't remember the others but I do remember Ask Jeeves, what a POS. The more I use Google the more I like it. Microsoft can forget my business but I might go with Yahoo a few times since they are good on financial things like stocks etc that I use free.
GOOG $360 March puts are only $1700 for 1 contract. With their volatility that might be cheap.
They showed their immaturity as a company when the CFO admitted that the tax burden was higher than he thought it was going to be. Google paid something like 42% in taxes, when ordinarily such a company would pay about 30%. Obviously there are a number of moves they could have made to avoid that ridiculously high taxation.
What do you think of these ?
http://news.clusty.com/
http://www.alltheweb.com/
Little or nothing has been said about how Google and Yahoo have sought to increase their profits in Red China by eliminating anything offensive to the ChiComs from their search engines. After all, such paltry concerns as freedom of inquiry, the international free exchange of ideas, and the notion that democratic ideas may take hold among the masses in a totalitarian state, are secondary to what the balance sheet could look like with a 1.4 billion person market. This is analogous to a private broadcaster during the Cold War saying that it would eliminate anything offensive to the Soviets from Radio Free Europe. The internet has all the potential to globally advance free thought and free expression. Sadly, these servicers have chosen to act as censors for the sake of profit. Shame!
Teoma works for me.
With stolen Yahoo technology. How could that be?
Wonder where they'll go next? :)
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