mashable.com
Google Went Public 10 Years Ago, But It’s Still Not a ‘Conventional’ Company / BY SETH FIEGERMAN / AUG 19, 2014
Just one week before Google officially became a public company, it looked like the IPO would have to be delayed. The reason: Playboy.
Google’s founders had given an interview to Playboy magazine, a move that some analysts assumed would raise a red flag with the Securities and Exchange Commission because it violated the “quiet period” in the leadup to an IPO. The SEC ultimately decided not to delay the IPO, but the incident was just one of several bumps on the road to Google’s public offering.
SEE ALSO: How Tech Companies Prepare for Life After the IPO
At every step of the process, Google seemed to be operating by its own rule, much to the chagrin of some on Wall Street. It planned to sell shares through an unusual kind of auction process. It kicked off the IPO filing with a letter from the founders, which began with the memorable line: “Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one.”
And then there was the hype and scale of the offering: Even after lowering its proposed share price at the last minute, Google raised $1.7 billion from its IPO making it by far the largest public offering of any Internet company to that point.
All of which is to say that Google was viewed as anything but a sure bet when it finally went public 10 years ago this week.
“In an unusual 768-page filing that eschews legalese and refers to its executives by their first names, Google also spotlighted some of the huge challenges the company now faces,” The Wall Street Journal wrote after Google put out its first IPO paperwork. “The straight talk underscored that as exciting as the financial world may find the IPO, an investment in Google will not be risk free.”
Allan Sloan at The Washington Post urged readers not to buy Google stock at the IPO and doubled down on that stance weeks later despite the stock surging above the IPO price. “I’ll repeat what I said three weeks ago,” he wrote. “This price is insane. And anyone buying Google as a long-term investment at $109.40 will lose money.”
Even Steve Wozniak, the cofounder of Apple, which had gone public more than two decades earlier, could be heard pouring cold water on the IPO. “I’m not buying,” Wozniak said in one interview. “’Past experience leaves the taste that a few people — never ourselves — will make out the first day, but that it’s not likely to appreciate a lot in the near future or maybe even the long future.’’
The individuals who run publicly-held sites such as Google, Twitter, Reddit, Youtube, Facebook, etc, decide what is allowed on the internet. Maxine Waters told us the Halfrican had a huge unprecedented data base of American to use in Democrat campaigns. Hmmmmmmm........how'd the half cast imbecile do that? How many visits did Facebook's Zuckerberg have w/ the Halfrican in the White House ? Dozens + dozens....but, hey, they were just talking golf and kids, surely. And when candidate Obama looted Facebook of personal data for his campaign. Zuck was right there helping Obama take whatever he wanted.
An extraordinary moment caught on film...tech masterminds of the universe in one place, toasting each other for screwing Americans in the name of Obama. Tech titans holding vast info on Americans plot the plan to compile a data base on Americans to be used in Democrat campaigns.
THE ORIGINS OF OBAMA'S POLICE STATE---DATA BASE ON AMERICANS CAUGHT ON FILM. (Mercury News photo)
Freeper edzo4 hat tip.
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What electronic frauds are being perpetrated that allow tinpot Obama to use the US govt against innocent Americans....and Republican candidates that stand in his way?