Google Holds $100 Level

Summer's dog days have taken a bite out of Google (GOOG Quote - Cramer on GOOG - Stock Picks).

Just two weeks removed from its huge initial public offering, the search engine company on Wednesday saw its stock slip below its IPO opening price of $100.01 for the first time since its Aug. 19 debut. Google shares, trading as low as $99.67 in midday action and falling again into double-digit territory near the close, subsequently regained the century mark in late afternoon action and finished at $100.25.

Wednesday's 2.1% selloff is far from catastrophic, obviously. Google shares remain some 18% above their IPO pricing level -- meaning that investors who bought the stock in the heavily anticipated offering are still comfortably in the money.

Even so, the stock has now given back all but its first-day gains, as euphoria surrounding the launch of the Mountain View, Calif., highflier has slowly dissipated. Increasingly, fans are focusing more on the company's next challenge -- for starters, competing with the likes of Yahoo! (YHOO Quote - Cramer on YHOO - Stock Picks) and Microsoft (MSFT Quote - Cramer on MSFT - Stock Picks) -- than on the success (and failings) of the initial public offering. The action suggests that even at a very slow time for Wall Street, the debate over Google's valuation continues.

The Google saga has consumed investors for much of the year, and it dominated financial headlines throughout the last month. Each twist in the drama sparked fierce debate on the merits of the company, its seldom-used Dutch auction IPO setup and the value of tech shares.

After shocking Wall Street in late July by saying it expected its shares to fetch somewhere in the region of $120 apiece in the IPO, Google endured a number of reversals. The company was forced to reissue its offering documents to keep regulators happy, and a number of informal probes of the company were opened by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Ultimately Google had to settle for a smaller offering at a much lower price, $85.

Analysts warned that highs and lows of Google speculation wouldn't end with the IPO. As American Technology Research analyst Mark Mahaney noted when he began coverage of Google last month, the stock is likely to be extremely volatile -- a reason for investors to be "highly price-sensitive" when investing in the company.

Naysayers have weighed in saying the company's days of triple-digit growth are well behind and that the more banal business questions take hold, like can margins be sustained and when do earnings start to erode.

Even so, the company was able to raise well in excess of a billion dollars in an offering that was quickly followed by a surge in early trading that eclipsed all talk of the IPO being a failure. Google jumped 18% on its first day of trading to finish at $100 and change. The stock continued rising for a few days thereafter, eventually registering a three-day gain of nearly 30%.

Since then, gravity has slowly but surely reasserted itself. On Wednesday, Google slipped $2.12 to close just a quarter above the $100 mark.