Google Names 31 Underwriters For IPO

Google has named another 29 underwriters for its forthcoming IPO – these are in addition to the two lead underwriters Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston. Amongst the new crop are JP Morgan Chase, Lehman Brothers and Deutsche Bank.

The sale is expected to raise US$2.7 billion (€2.26 billion) later this year, the biggest new technology stock sale since the wheels fell off the new economy in 2000.

Google’s sale will be unusual in that they are going to use a open auction process – investors will be able to bid for shares at a price they are willing to pay, a method that Google believes will be fairer to small investors. Since whoever pays the most still wins, that remains to be seen.

The Unofficial Google IPO Site

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Fraser Lovatt

Fraser Lovatt has spent the last fifteen years working in publishing, TV and the Internet in various capacities, and believes that they will be seperate platforms for at least a while yet. His main interests at the moment are exploring where Linux is taking home entertainment and how technology is conferring technical skills on more and more people. Fraser Lovatt was born in the same year that 2001: A Space Odyssey was delighting and confusing people in the cinemas, and developed a lifelong love of technology as soon as he realised that things could be taken apart, sometimes put back together again, but mostly left in bits or made into something the original designer hadn't quite planned upon. At school he was definitely in the ZX Spectrum/Magpie/BMX camp, rather than the BBC Micro/Blue Peter/well-behaved group. This is all deeply ironic as he later went on to spend nine years working at the BBC. After a few years of working as a bookseller in Scotland, ("Back when it was actually a skilled profession" he'll tell anyone still listening), he moved to England for reasons he can't quite explain adequately to himself. After a couple of publishing jobs punctuated by sporadic bursts of travelling and photography came the aforementioned nine years at the BBC where he specialised in internet technologies and video. These days his primary interests are Java, Linux, videogames and pies - and if they're not candidates for convergence, then what is?