Tuesday, July 27, 2004
show all 28,500 Google Search: allinurl:www totaltravel co.uk
Google Search: allinurl:www totaltravel co.uk: " 1 - 100 of about 28,500 "
19,400 Google Search: allinurl:www totaltravel co.uk
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Google's 15 minutes of fame inc history of search related share prices...
Google's 15 minutes of fame: "Google's 15 minutes of fame Commentary: Atypical price for an atypical company "
By Bambi Francisco, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 9:35 PM ET Jul 26, 2004
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- So, you want to buy Google at a valuation of some $32 billion and a price-to-earnings multiple of 100-plus?
That was the question with which investors were left after Google's latest filing Monday, in which it said it would offer 24.6 million shares for between $108 and $135 each.
For a company that wants to be accessible to small investors, the price is a psychological deterrent. But investors will have at least a couple of weeks to determine whether they want to bid at that price.
If you're one of the lucky 800 or so big-time investors invited to Google's road-show luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan on Tuesday, you'll even get to rub elbows with the Google executives. The official IPO launch is slated for the week of August 9, according to investors looking at the deal.
I'd imagine that anyone interested in investments might find it a bit hard to decline any of these shares if they were offered.
Why is Google apparently worth it to some?
For one thing, Google's more profitable than Yahoo. In Google's latest S-1, the company said it had an operating profit of $326 million in the first six months of this year. That was earned on sales of $1.3 billion. By comparison, Yahoo posted a smaller operating profit of $281 million on a larger revenue base, $1.59 billion.
Google's also been the top-rated search engine, ahead of Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT).
Additionally, Google's search revenue grew 7.5 percent in the second quarter from the first quarter. For its part, Yahoo said that its search sales were essentially flat in the same period.
Another positive note for Google is the pent-up demand that may be present by the time Google goes public, especially after the recent correction in Net shares.
Reasons not to buy
But Google is expensive.
Its float alone is larger than the market caps of Ask Jeeves (ASKJ), InfoSpace (INSP) and FindWhat (FWHT) combined.
At Google's latest price, it's estimated to earn $1.26 per share on sales of $1.8 billion, according to Mark Mahaney, an analyst at American Technology Research. That means, at Google's midpoint proposed IPO price, it will trade around 96 times 2004 earnings. Yahoo is expected to earn 33 cents per share. At its current price of $28, it's trading at around 85 times this year's earnings.
I question whether Google deserves such a premium multiple.
First of all, there is a huge overhang of shares. Google is making 10 percent of its company available to shareholders. That means for every 1 share owned, there are nine waiting to be sold down the road.
Secondly, at such a multiple, it's unclear whether the bankers have priced in future erosion of margins due to competitors, like Microsoft and Yahoo. We'll hear some words from Mr. Softy about its push into search this Thursday at its analyst day.
It's unclear how formidable Microsoft will be in search. But clearly, Microsoft has the money to make a difference and the know-how to be a monopoly. Google has yet to be the de facto Web search tool for anyone.
As for Google's ability to compete with Yahoo, it's unclear whether Google has the wherewithal to move into what will be the sweet spot in online advertising: Branded advertising.
This appears to be the next phase of growth, most observers agree. Sure, when Yahoo went public at a market valuation of $334 million in 1996, it generated sales of $19 million in that year. But sales also rocketed 252 percent to $67 million by the following. Those aren't the type of growth rates a mature company like Google is experiencing.
Search explosion was in 2003. What will be the driver in 2005? If it's brand advertising, search engines don't have what brand marketers want: stickiness.
According to comScore, the average time spent on Yahoo is 4.4 hours in a month compared to 22 minutes for Google. Time Warner's (TWX) AOL seems to keep users on its properties for 6 hours in a month, on average.
15 minutes
Yahoo has both search and branded advertising. What will it cost Google to maintain its attractiveness to consumers and investors? It's already taking the steps to emulate Yahoo by offering Gmail.
But does it know the media business like Yahoo does?
It seems that every three years, a new search engine takes the lead and has its 15 minutes of fame.
Alta Vista, the pioneer of Web searches, learned the hard way. Its technology started in 1995 inside Digital Equipment and was the leading search product in the early commercial days of the Internet in 1996. That was before DEC was sold to Compaq Computer and Compaq was sold to Hewlett-Packard, Now, Alta Vista's part of Overture. See related story.
Inktomi was a 1999 darling that inflated to a market value of roughly $30 billion during the bubble heyday. Now, it's part of Yahoo (YHOO).
Google, which had 10 employees in 1999, grew to be the most widely recognized search brand in the world by 2002. See Web searchers doing the Google.
But now Microsoft (MSFT) is brewing up its own "secret sauce" of algorithms to search Web pages.
What will happen by 2005 is anyone's guess, but here's a look at what has happened so far:
1996: Search goes public
(all IPOs are split-adjusted prices. Source: Dealogic)
Jan. 1996: Google founders collaborate on search engine called BackRub
April 1, 1996: Lycos goes public at $4 a share
April 4, 1996: Excite goes public at $8.50 a share
April 11, 1996: Yahoo prices at $1.83.
1998 and 1999: New batch of search engines go public and Google is born
1998: Google opens its doors (answers 10,000 search queries Oct. 7, 1998)
June 1998: Inktomi goes public at $4.15 (market cap at IPO was $370 million)
December 1998: InfoSpace (INSP) goes public at $15
May 1999: Excite merges with At Home for $6.5 billion
June 1999: GoTo.com goes public at $15. Company changes name eventually to Overture Services.
June 1999: Ask Jeeves (ASKJ) goes public at $14
August 1999: LookSmart (LOOK) goes public at $12
August 1999: CMGI buys 83 percent of Alta Vista for $2.3 billion in stock, plus bonds
2000 and 2001: More consolidation and bankruptcy
Oct. 30, 2000: Terra Networks (TRLY) buys Lycos for $46.40 per share, or $5.1 billion.
Sept. 28, 2001: ExciteAtHome goes bankrupt. See story.
2002: Back to search roots
Nov. 13, 2002: Alta Vista relaunches its search site. See Alta Vista's constant search.
December 2002: Yahoo says it'll buy Inktomi for $233 million in cash.
2003: Google accelerates position and portal expansion; Microsoft launches Web crawler; Search gets deeper
March 2003: Google surpasses Yahoo in searches with 1.1 million searches. (source: comScore)
March 4, 2003: Ask Jeeves says it's buying Interactive Search Holdings for $343 million. See full story.
March 11, 2003: Yahoo's maps meet Yellow Pages See Yahoo local
March 29, 2003: Google's Froogle launched See Google's Froogle.
April 7, 2003: Yahoo revamps its search functionalities. See Yahoo returns to search roots.
April 21, 2003: Ask Jeeves unveils its new look. See Ask Jeeves' search gets smarter.
April 28, 2003: Overture completes purchase of Alta Vista for $106 million stock and cash
June 19, 2003: Microsoft tests its own Web crawler. See full story.
July 1, 2003: MSN to recast search to make algorithmic searches more prominent. See MSN to recast search.
Oct. 7, 2003: Yahoo completes purchase of Overture for $2.2 bln in stock and cash.
2004: Google's long awaited IPO
April 29, 2004: Google announces it'll try to raise $2.7 billion through an IPO, offering shares in a Dutch auction. See full story.
So would you buy Google shares at this price? E-mail: Bfrancisco@marketwatch.com Or, you can e-mail me at: Bambi.blogs.com
By Bambi Francisco, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 9:35 PM ET Jul 26, 2004
SAN FRANCISCO (CBS.MW) -- So, you want to buy Google at a valuation of some $32 billion and a price-to-earnings multiple of 100-plus?
That was the question with which investors were left after Google's latest filing Monday, in which it said it would offer 24.6 million shares for between $108 and $135 each.
For a company that wants to be accessible to small investors, the price is a psychological deterrent. But investors will have at least a couple of weeks to determine whether they want to bid at that price.
If you're one of the lucky 800 or so big-time investors invited to Google's road-show luncheon at the Waldorf-Astoria in Manhattan on Tuesday, you'll even get to rub elbows with the Google executives. The official IPO launch is slated for the week of August 9, according to investors looking at the deal.
I'd imagine that anyone interested in investments might find it a bit hard to decline any of these shares if they were offered.
Why is Google apparently worth it to some?
For one thing, Google's more profitable than Yahoo. In Google's latest S-1, the company said it had an operating profit of $326 million in the first six months of this year. That was earned on sales of $1.3 billion. By comparison, Yahoo posted a smaller operating profit of $281 million on a larger revenue base, $1.59 billion.
Google's also been the top-rated search engine, ahead of Yahoo (YHOO) and Microsoft (MSFT).
Additionally, Google's search revenue grew 7.5 percent in the second quarter from the first quarter. For its part, Yahoo said that its search sales were essentially flat in the same period.
Another positive note for Google is the pent-up demand that may be present by the time Google goes public, especially after the recent correction in Net shares.
Reasons not to buy
But Google is expensive.
Its float alone is larger than the market caps of Ask Jeeves (ASKJ), InfoSpace (INSP) and FindWhat (FWHT) combined.
At Google's latest price, it's estimated to earn $1.26 per share on sales of $1.8 billion, according to Mark Mahaney, an analyst at American Technology Research. That means, at Google's midpoint proposed IPO price, it will trade around 96 times 2004 earnings. Yahoo is expected to earn 33 cents per share. At its current price of $28, it's trading at around 85 times this year's earnings.
I question whether Google deserves such a premium multiple.
First of all, there is a huge overhang of shares. Google is making 10 percent of its company available to shareholders. That means for every 1 share owned, there are nine waiting to be sold down the road.
Secondly, at such a multiple, it's unclear whether the bankers have priced in future erosion of margins due to competitors, like Microsoft and Yahoo. We'll hear some words from Mr. Softy about its push into search this Thursday at its analyst day.
It's unclear how formidable Microsoft will be in search. But clearly, Microsoft has the money to make a difference and the know-how to be a monopoly. Google has yet to be the de facto Web search tool for anyone.
As for Google's ability to compete with Yahoo, it's unclear whether Google has the wherewithal to move into what will be the sweet spot in online advertising: Branded advertising.
This appears to be the next phase of growth, most observers agree. Sure, when Yahoo went public at a market valuation of $334 million in 1996, it generated sales of $19 million in that year. But sales also rocketed 252 percent to $67 million by the following. Those aren't the type of growth rates a mature company like Google is experiencing.
Search explosion was in 2003. What will be the driver in 2005? If it's brand advertising, search engines don't have what brand marketers want: stickiness.
According to comScore, the average time spent on Yahoo is 4.4 hours in a month compared to 22 minutes for Google. Time Warner's (TWX) AOL seems to keep users on its properties for 6 hours in a month, on average.
15 minutes
Yahoo has both search and branded advertising. What will it cost Google to maintain its attractiveness to consumers and investors? It's already taking the steps to emulate Yahoo by offering Gmail.
But does it know the media business like Yahoo does?
It seems that every three years, a new search engine takes the lead and has its 15 minutes of fame.
Alta Vista, the pioneer of Web searches, learned the hard way. Its technology started in 1995 inside Digital Equipment and was the leading search product in the early commercial days of the Internet in 1996. That was before DEC was sold to Compaq Computer and Compaq was sold to Hewlett-Packard, Now, Alta Vista's part of Overture. See related story.
Inktomi was a 1999 darling that inflated to a market value of roughly $30 billion during the bubble heyday. Now, it's part of Yahoo (YHOO).
Google, which had 10 employees in 1999, grew to be the most widely recognized search brand in the world by 2002. See Web searchers doing the Google.
But now Microsoft (MSFT) is brewing up its own "secret sauce" of algorithms to search Web pages.
What will happen by 2005 is anyone's guess, but here's a look at what has happened so far:
1996: Search goes public
(all IPOs are split-adjusted prices. Source: Dealogic)
Jan. 1996: Google founders collaborate on search engine called BackRub
April 1, 1996: Lycos goes public at $4 a share
April 4, 1996: Excite goes public at $8.50 a share
April 11, 1996: Yahoo prices at $1.83.
1998 and 1999: New batch of search engines go public and Google is born
1998: Google opens its doors (answers 10,000 search queries Oct. 7, 1998)
June 1998: Inktomi goes public at $4.15 (market cap at IPO was $370 million)
December 1998: InfoSpace (INSP) goes public at $15
May 1999: Excite merges with At Home for $6.5 billion
June 1999: GoTo.com goes public at $15. Company changes name eventually to Overture Services.
June 1999: Ask Jeeves (ASKJ) goes public at $14
August 1999: LookSmart (LOOK) goes public at $12
August 1999: CMGI buys 83 percent of Alta Vista for $2.3 billion in stock, plus bonds
2000 and 2001: More consolidation and bankruptcy
Oct. 30, 2000: Terra Networks (TRLY) buys Lycos for $46.40 per share, or $5.1 billion.
Sept. 28, 2001: ExciteAtHome goes bankrupt. See story.
2002: Back to search roots
Nov. 13, 2002: Alta Vista relaunches its search site. See Alta Vista's constant search.
December 2002: Yahoo says it'll buy Inktomi for $233 million in cash.
2003: Google accelerates position and portal expansion; Microsoft launches Web crawler; Search gets deeper
March 2003: Google surpasses Yahoo in searches with 1.1 million searches. (source: comScore)
March 4, 2003: Ask Jeeves says it's buying Interactive Search Holdings for $343 million. See full story.
March 11, 2003: Yahoo's maps meet Yellow Pages See Yahoo local
March 29, 2003: Google's Froogle launched See Google's Froogle.
April 7, 2003: Yahoo revamps its search functionalities. See Yahoo returns to search roots.
April 21, 2003: Ask Jeeves unveils its new look. See Ask Jeeves' search gets smarter.
April 28, 2003: Overture completes purchase of Alta Vista for $106 million stock and cash
June 19, 2003: Microsoft tests its own Web crawler. See full story.
July 1, 2003: MSN to recast search to make algorithmic searches more prominent. See MSN to recast search.
Oct. 7, 2003: Yahoo completes purchase of Overture for $2.2 bln in stock and cash.
2004: Google's long awaited IPO
April 29, 2004: Google announces it'll try to raise $2.7 billion through an IPO, offering shares in a Dutch auction. See full story.
So would you buy Google shares at this price? E-mail: Bfrancisco@marketwatch.com Or, you can e-mail me at: Bambi.blogs.com
Monday, July 26, 2004
Google Closes Doors on One Nation
Search Engine News :: Search Engine Lowdown: Google Closes Doors on One Nation: "Google Closes Doors on One Nation
Those poor citizens of Azerbaijan can no longer claim to have a Google all to themselves. According to media powerhouse 'BakuToday' (yes, my tongue is in my cheek), Google has decided not to continue with their www.google.az domain.
Google was the most popular international search engine in Azerbaijan. It is translated in Azerbaijani, and fully supports Azerbaijani language standards (Unicode and UTF-8). "
Those poor citizens of Azerbaijan can no longer claim to have a Google all to themselves. According to media powerhouse 'BakuToday' (yes, my tongue is in my cheek), Google has decided not to continue with their www.google.az domain.
Google was the most popular international search engine in Azerbaijan. It is translated in Azerbaijani, and fully supports Azerbaijani language standards (Unicode and UTF-8). "
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