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Google Sees IPO Pricing Above $100

TSC Staff

Google's initial public offering looked stranger still after the Internet search engine revealed Monday that it expects shares to come to market at well over $100 apiece.

The search engine company revealed in a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it expects to offer 24.6 million shares between $108 and $135 a share. About 14 million shares will represent new equity being sold by the company, while the remainder will be shares currently held by company insiders.

The offering is valued at between $2.66 billion and $3.32 billion, indicating strong demand for the stock. The company in its initial filings pegged the value of the deal at $2.7 billion.

Google's stock will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker GOOG.

Google is going public through an unusual Dutch Auction process in which would-be investors will bid on the stock before it is priced. The company again warned investors in the filing Monday that it doesn't expect the stock to experience the kind of early appreciation that was typical of technology IPOs during the Internet bubble.

"As part of this auction process, we are attempting to assess the market demand for our Class A common stock and to set the size and price to the public of this offering to meet that demand. As a result, buyers should not expect to be able to sell their shares for a profit shortly after our Class A common stock begins trading," it said.

Google said the minimum bid will be for five shares and said the stock will probably be delivered to investors sometime in August.