Friday the 13th was decision day for investors weighing whether to bid for shares in Google Inc.'s initial public offering. The big question now is, how many of them were feeling lucky on an unlucky day.
Luck may end up being a big factor in the unconventional auction that the Web's most popular search engine is using to price its IPO, which Google adopted to attract everyday investors who usually can't get in on a share offering.
While that creates a chance for investors to get in at the starting price, it also means that they will have to compute the price they want to pay and a number of shares they want based on their view of what Google is worth, no easy task.
Google is expecting its shares to be priced between $108 and $135, which, at the high-end, values the company at 188 times its earnings over the last four quarters, compared with a trailing ratio of just over 100 for close rival Yahoo Inc.
Nearly a dozen investors and analysts who are disclosing their pricing expectations are predicting that Google's shares will be priced between $70 and $115 per share.
Full Story... Source : PeopleDaily