Google passes $500 a share

[Xenotime]

Google Inc.'s stock price surpassed $500 for the first time Tuesday, marking another milestone in a rapid rise that has catapulted the Internet search leader into the corporate elite.

Continuing a recent surge driven by Wall Street's high expectations for the company, Google's shares rose $9.67, or nearly 2 percent, to $504.72 in morning trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

...


Anyone waiting for a stock split before investing in Google risks being left on the sidelines. Although most publicly held companies regularly split their stock to create a lower per-share price that appeals to more Main Street investors, the proudly unconventional Page and Brin have repeatedly indicated they have no intention of resorting to that maneuver.

http://www.breitbart.com/news/2006/11/21/D8LHHVCG0.html

[flowomo]

1. $154 BILLION in market value....

right. somebody's gonna take a hit.

[Javaman]

2. The google bubble...

It's not going to be pretty.

[depakid]

3. No, it isn't

Yahoo Deja Vu.

[Javaman]

4. My thoughts exactly...nt

[Polesitter]

5. But Al Gore [big google investor] is getting big $$$ n/t

[Ezlivin]

6. Synthetic economy?

I'm not an economist nor am I particularly knowledgeable about market capitalization, stocks, etc.

But how can Google's shares be higher than older, established companies that actually sell tangible items?

At first blush this seems like a minor retread of the earlier dot com bubble.

[President Kerry]

11. Google sells advertising space online...

It's a VERY tangible investment for somebody that wants to get their name out (from mom&pops to blue chips), and as dominant as Google is in search, they are not in danger of losing their hundreds of thousands of advertising relationships overnight. It's spectacular really, and i reserve my judgment on whether it's a bubble. All I know is they've got solid grounding in market share and technology.

[Indy_Dem_Defender]

7. Can someone with more knowledge explain this one to me

How can a company like Google turn any kind of profit? I know they charge for ads but I can't even imagine that being enough to cover the cost of the website, employees, etc. I mean I am not real knowledgeable on the workings of running a search engine like google or stocks for that matter, but being that as it may, I would think common sense says stay clear of investing into these kinds of businesses.

[NOLADEM]

8. Indeed it is enough..

Their ad revenue is HUGE. HUGE. HUGE.

They sell everything.
They get a cut of click throughs when someone picks an ad.
They often get a cut of the sale if a click through results in a sale.
They get ad impressions when someone just sees an ad.
They get money from selling services from email upgrades to images (high resolution) and on and on. They get money from ranking searches because companies pay search engines to rank them highly when certain criteria is used.
They make money by selling search habits, shopping info, how long you stay at a site, where you went before and after, what you search for when, where you go using Google Maps, etc.
They also make money by advertising placement on their map service.
They make money by selling branded products.

Basically, they are the new TV, phone book, map, operator, information service, library, Big Brother, mail service, and coming soon to phone. They are also uniquely positioned to purchase underperforming specialty dotcoms and turn them profitable or dominant because they control traffic on the web in a big way. They have ENDLESS potential revenue streams.

[Polesitter]

9. Sure, everytime you click on a website, the "referring" website

is credited. The more places people go after conducting a google search, the richer they become. It might be a penny or 1/2 cent for just linking to a site, with more money involved if the person actually buys something. Go to google, look up cars, go to GM or Ford and actually buy one, and there may be a hefty fee (by internet standards) changing hands.

[President Kerry]

13. Mostly they make money on advertising...

Say 50 million searches are conducted online daily, worldwide (i made the number up, but the magnitude is about right).. About half of all those searches will give you "sponsored links" (basically text ads), alongside your actual search results. That's because hundreds of thousands of businesses actually pay Google to put in their ads when a searcher puts in a particular keyword (they continuously auction on thousands of keywords). About 13-14% of the impressions of those ads end up being clicked. The average is, say 15 cents per click (ranges from a penny to dollars per click depending on keyword). That's the cash Google pockets, and if you work out the numbers it adds up to HUUUUUGE profits. What's more, Google enters into partnership with other private websites that run Google's search boxes.. Google's reach is humongous.

[closeupready]

10. What was Google's initial offering price?

???

[President Kerry]

12. $85 n/t

[closeupready]

14. Wow.

That would be some return on investment. lol