Product details

Google went public on 19 August 2004, using the 'dutch auction' method. Ever since the announcement of the IPO was made in April 2004, the IPO became mired in some controversy or other. On the one hand, it was a much awaited IPO - most IPOs had not performed well in 2004, so investors were eagerly looking forward to the Google IPO as Google was a highly profitable company. On the other hand, most investment bankers had expressed their concerns about the IPO and had declared it to be a failure even before its launch. Just a week before the launch of the IPO, Google's founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page violated the rules of the Securities and Exchange Commission by breaking the 'quiet period'. Another violation that SEC discovered was Google's failure to report the shares that it had issued to its employees and consultants in the period September 2001 and July 2004. These issues heightened the controversies surrounding the IPO. However, all these controversies notwithstanding, the Google IPO performed exceedingly well. It helped the company to collect $1.4 billion, and put Google's valuation at nearly $30 billion. The success of the IPO effectively silenced all its detractors.