NYCPHP Meetup

[David Mintz]

On Mon, 26 Apr 2004, Matthew Terenzio wrote:

> >
> > echo "Huh?", $object->method(), "... whatever.";
>
> what's the advantage of that over
>
> print "Huh?".$object->method()."... whatever.";


Hmmm, now that you call me on it -- I forget.


---
David Mintz
http://davidmintz.org/

        "Anybody else got a problem with Webistics?" -- Sopranos 24:17

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And so it is:




For Hottest IPO in Years, Google
Taps CSFB and Morgan Stanley=20

By ROBIN SIDEL and KEVIN J. DELANEY=20
Staff Reporters of THE WALL STREET JOURNAL=20


Internet-search pioneer Google Inc. has tapped Credit Suisse First
Boston and Morgan Stanley to lead an eagerly anticipated initial public
offering that likely will be announced this week, according to people
familiar with the situation.

Google's selection of the two big securities firms ends months of
intense speculation over who on Wall Street would snag an assignment
that is expected to generate investment-banking fees of nearly $100
million and huge bragging rights. An IPO of Google likely will be one of
the biggest U.S. public offerings ever and, if successful, could trigger
a new wave of IPO filings among other technology companies.

The deal has all of the hoopla of the biggest IPOs of the 1990s, when
Netscape Communications sold shares publicly and helped set off a frenzy
that sent the stock market soaring. As in some 1990s deals, this public
offering stands to make some computer-science whiz kids wealthy beyond
their wildest dreams, while also benefiting a cast of well-known venture
capitalists. With nearly insatiable investor interest, it could put a
price tag of $25 billion on a company that didn't exist a decade ago,
making it more valuable than retailer Sears, Roebuck & Co. and hotel
operator Marriott International Inc.

Some things, however, are different now. Google is turning a profit,
according to executives at the company, unlike so many of the profitless
wonders of the bubble era. And its IPO will test many of the reforms put
in place by regulators in the wake of the bubble's burst. Those reforms
are intended to wipe out abuses that allowed favored Wall Street
investment-banking and trading clients, and Wall Street itself, to
benefit at the expense of many other investors.

The enthusiasm for a Google IPO also demonstrates the importance the
search function has assumed in how people use the Internet, helping
shape the sites they view, the news they read and the products they buy.
There is a revenue stream to match: Advertisers increasingly use search
sites as a way to buy more targeted advertising, since the sites can
match up ads with what people are looking for. Microsoft Corp. and Yahoo
Inc. are among the players that have concluded that search is of such
strategic importance that they have poured money into their own search
offerings recently.

For CSFB, the contract is a major coup. Just a few years ago, the firm
was at the center of an IPO scandal, and its former star technology
banker, Frank Quattrone, is now being retried on obstruction-of-justice
charges related to an investigation into alleged IPO abuses. CSFB, which
is the securities unit of Zurich's Credit Suisse Group, paid $100
million two years ago to settle civil regulatory charges, without
admitting or denying wrongdoing, that it provided shares of hot IPOs to
investment firms in exchange for excessive commissions.

Still, CSFB has retained a prominent role in technology-investment
banking, nabbing the top spot for underwriting technology IPOs in the
first quarter of 2004. It also has hustled to plug holes in its
technology-sector investment-banking business after a nine-member group
defected to Deutsche Bank AG earlier this year. Earlier this month, CSFB
added eight new bankers, including some who previously hailed from major
rivals. One big factor in CSFB's favor: Last year, Google hired the
firm's Internet stock analyst, Lise Buyer, as "director of business
optimization."

Morgan Stanley was expected to win a top spot in a Google IPO. The Wall
Street firm long has been prominent in technology-investment banking,
and it employs one of the nation's best-known and most-influential
Internet analysts: Mary Meeker, a prolific booster of Silicon Valley
during the Internet boom who now co-heads the firm's tech-sector
research. Terms of a historic regulatory settlement, reached a year ago
this week to resolve allegations that 10 of Wall Street's biggest
securities firms hyped stocks to ingratiate themselves with
investment-banking clients, barred research analysts from attending any
meetings in which investment bankers were pitching the IPO to Google.

People familiar with the situation say Citigroup Inc. and Goldman Sachs
Group Inc. -- both of which had been in the running for the top spot --
are expected to still play a large role. J.P. Morgan Chase & Co. and
Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., among others also will be involved, these
people say.

A spokeswoman for Google, Mountain View, Calif., declined to comment.
Representatives of CSFB, Morgan Stanley, Citigroup, Goldman, J.P. Morgan
and Lehman declined to comment. Other banks couldn't be reached for
comment.

Investment bankers believe an IPO would value Google at as much as $25
billion. Last fall, some of Google's prospective advisers estimated the
company's valuation could be in line with Internet powerhouses Yahoo
Inc., valued at $38 billion, Amazon.com Inc. at $20 billion and eBay
Inc. at $54 billion.

Founded by two Stanford University graduate students in 1998, Google
became popular for delivering fast, relevant Web-search results. It
turns a profit by selling advertising on its pages and those of other
Web sites and by licensing its search technology to other companies.
While potential investors and fans of the company have been eager to
learn about a Google IPO, so have the company's prospective
underwriters. Google contacted more than a dozen investment banks last
fall and then trimmed the list to about a half dozen. The banks received
little word from Google for the next several months until the company
began contacting them about a month ago, people familiar with the matter
say.

Many aspects of the IPO, including its size and price, are closely
guarded secrets, and elements are believed to still be under discussion,
the people familiar with the matter say. It isn't clear how much detail
Google would release this week. Even the list of second-tier banks may
still be tentative, some people caution.

Google's founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, are believed to own about
a third of the company, if not more. Other investors include venture
firms Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers and Sequoia Capital, which
together led an investment totaling $25 million in 1999. Yahoo and Time
Warner Inc.'s America Online unit also have stakes in Google, or
warrants to acquire shares, obtained through partnerships with the firm.

While many investors were burned by high-flying technology IPOs that
crashed, Google is expected to have a successful offering in part
because the company is far more established than so many other Internet
companies that went public. Google's brand name is expected to go a long
way in attracting professional investors and small individuals alike.
But any effort by Google to include an unusual component, such as an
online sale of shares to individual investors, which management has
pushed for, could create some bumps.

Google, for its part, is intent on crafting an IPO so that individual
investors, not just big institutional investors, could buy shares, the
people say. Under the online option being discussed, individuals would
place orders directly, instead of through a broker. Many investment
bankers have been leery of that unconventional approach. People familiar
with the situation say one of the factors that may have relegated
Goldman to a secondary role was the bank's reservations about this
online component.

Google is widely expected to be quite thrifty in doling out banking
fees. People familiar with the matter say that Google executives don't
hold the investment-banking community in high regard and will be loath
to hand over big fees for the IPO work. And the bankers, eager to get a
piece of such a highly prized deal, aren't expected to drive a hard
bargain.

Google couldn't be filing for an IPO at a more opportune time: The
company is the No. 1 Web-site destination for Internet searches. It has
expanded its offerings in recent months, with sites devoted to news and
shopping. Most recently, it began testing a free e-mail service.

The extremely secretive Google is being nudged into a public offering by
federal regulations that require certain closely held companies to
publicly disclose more information about their businesses once they hit
a certain size. Those rules often trigger companies to file IPOs.

The Securities and Exchange Commission rule applies to companies with
more than 500 shareholders and $10 million in assets. Google meets the
requirement, because most of its more than 1,000 employees hold stock
options. The rule requires companies to file disclosures about their
finances within 120 days after the end of their fiscal year. For Google,
the requirement will be triggered this week.