Friday, August 13, 2004

I'm sick of Google bashing before their IPO

I'm getting tired of Google bashing in the news.

Am I the only one who sees this? The people who want the stock cheaper are quoted. The people who want the investment bankers to continue their corrupt ways are quoted, (I'm talking to you Mr. James Cramer).

The point of an IPO is to raise capital for a company. Not to fill the pockets of insider bankers and people who hope to time the market based on the bankers under pricing the stock. Corporations left billions of dollars on the table so that the insider investment bankers could have their "pop" on the early trading.
Now I'm sure nobody is crying tears for the soon to be multi-millionaires at Google. But for goodness sake, at least acknowledge that these stories aren't fair.
Google has their mouth taped shut. They can't defend themselves, nobody is standing up for them because they figure it isn't necessary or they are part of the insiders.

Google has done a tremendous service to the internet community and the world at large. Yes they are a corporation out to make money, but they are also a BETTER corporation (with specific values and ideas) than some others. Do you really want Microsoft to own search? Do you really want Overture running the show with their embedded links that are paid for by the sponsor?

Google went the Dutch auction route so that they could help wring some of the excess out of the system and they were in the position to do it. The bankers grudgingly went along, but they aren't helping the company now. They should be keeping them positioned well within the investment community, but since they were stiffed they are just letting the company twist in the wind and they are contributing to stories that are going to drive the stock down.
On the press side they are running the lame old "Are they too good to be true? Are they too big for their britches?" crap. It is lazy journalism and they are being lead around by their nose by the competitors and the pissed of investors who aren't going to get fat off of the inside payoffs of old.
The only story that I saw that noticed all this was a single reporter for the San Jose Mercury news, but this was after several other stories about "Google has problems with the IPO." had already run.

1 Comments:

Ad Huikeshoven said...

Google bashing

A New York times op-ed by Cukier and Hindman pushes Google bashing to the next level. Have you read their complaint about the search engine? Go check it! They really do complain Google narrows the field of sites you will be looking at after typing in your search query.

Initially I read that op-ed translated in Dutch in NRC Handelsblad, a Dutch newspaper. Seems like Cukier and Hindman get their story around the world.

4:42 AM  

Post a Comment

<< Home