8/12    Any bets on the low that GOOG stock will hit within one week of when
        the share price is set?  I say $80!  ("The company currently estimates
        its initial stock to be worth between $108 and $135 a share.")
        Within 6 months?  I say $30!
        \_ GOOG is a free profitable lesson in shorting
           \_ Use motdedit, visigoth
        \_ After 1 week: 25% drop from day 1 opening.  After 6 months: 40% drop
        \_ Schadenfreude doesn't become you.
           \_ Interestingly enough, Google brought this upon itself simply by
              naming such a high initial auction price. It's torn open the
              still mending wounds of the Internet bubble. If the initial bid
              price started in the $30s, public opinion and follow-up news
              articles would be much less acrimonious. Of course, the price
              would have soared for the first week (I'd guess peaking at 70+)
              before the sugar rush ended and the down slide began.
              \_ you do understand that there's no relation whatsoever between
                 the initial per-share price and the IPO valuation, right? -tom
                 \_ Public perception is the important thing here. Those who
                    expected a low initial share price were sudden faced with
                    a high one. The IPO value didn't change (although I think
                    it's rather absurd), but most people see it as a money
                    grab and not worth SPECULATING. For Google, the price
                    makes sense, but for those who wanted to see another
                    Webvan-style stock increase and selloff, it sucks. And
                    those people are the major grumblers.
                    \_ First of all, there's no chance of another Webvan-style
                       stock increase and selloff; it's no longer 1998.
                       Second, I think Google's owners legitimately want to
                       value their business fairly.  They also are big fans
                       of Warrenn Buffett, who believes that low share prices
                       (and stock splits to support them) reduce the quality
                       of the investors.
                       I think Google is pricey at 100-120 P/E (which is where
                       they're valuing it), but most IPOs are not good deals
                       for open-market investors (as opposed to the founders
                       and VCs).  YHOO's P/E is also over 100, EBAY's is
                       70, so it's not like they're totally out of whack with
                       the other big players in the sector.  -tom
                       \_ Then we agree! Wow! And they say that never happens
                          on the motd!
                       \_ What exactly is a 'lower quality investor'?  Is
                          their money less green?  The other companies you are
                          comparing Google to now have long public track
                          records.  A newly public company can not claim the
                          same public confidence as a company that has been
                          successfully running their business in public for a
                          few years.
                          \_ It's his way of saying 'speculator'.
           \_ I don't think it's any such thing.  I think everyone believes
              it is going to go down because they think it is priced too high.
              Google also has lots of really bad news recently showing they're
              not ready to be a real public company responsibly run, not a dot
              com bubble cluster fuck.
        \_ Below $20 within 2 years, unless they have something more impressive
           than froogle and gmail in store.
           \_ I say $30 on the 2 year mark but agree with you on the general
              concept.
                \_ wow lotta google haters out there, funny
                   \_ Don't hate the player, hate the game.
                   \_ I don't hate Google.  It's just a company.  I'm talking
                      about business, money, and the public market.  There is
                      nothing funny about any of those things.  Bringing any
                      sort of emotion into the equation is foolish.