Time flies, huh? Five years ago, Google, Inc. (Nasdaq: GOOG) hit the public markets, making its founders -- Larry Page and Sergey Brin -- officially billionaires.The offering price was $85. And from there, the stock zoomed. The all-time high came in November 2007, when Google's stock price reached $741.79 (for a market cap over $220 billion).
Of course, the Google IPO was fairly unique. In fact, there was a open letter to investors in the prospectus. And, the message was that Google is certainly not a "conventional" company.
So, going against prevailing IPO wisdom, Google had its offering during one of the worst months (when investors are usually on vacation). Also, the company wanted to use its whiz-bang technology to distribute shares in the offering. Basically, this meant using a dutch auction. That is, you would submit your bids online.
Something else: there was an interview in Playboy with the founders. It was enough to cause consternation with the folks at the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC).
Needless to say, Google was brilliant in its use of PR.
Interestingly enough, Larry and Sergey didn't want to take Google public. However, because of some obscure securities rules, there was no choice.
But hey, being public has its advantages. For example, it helped to pull off the deal for YouTube (which was paid partially in stock).
So what about Google's impact on IPOs in general? Not so much. The dutch auction is a rarity. Also, prospectuses continue to be extremely boring. Oh, and I haven't seen any Playboy interviews with company founders, either.
In other words, Google is really an outlier -- yet, it has been lots of fun to watch.
Tom Taulli is the author of various books, including The IPO Primer and The Complete M&A Handbook
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