Google IPO & search wars:
Fool.com: Gunning for Google [Motley Fool Take] October 13, 2003: "according to a recent Barron's article, the IPO market may see fireworks from a Google public offering.
Many forces are driving Google to an IPO. One is a technicality; there is a regulation on the books, crafted in 1934, that forces companies to report to the SEC if they have at least $10 million in assets and 500 shareholders.
Another force: greed. Venture capitalists desperately need to show their investors that they can make some money.
But perhaps the real reason is that Web search has become a war."