Google's Playboy Issue

Boys will be boys, but when those boys are about to sell a $36 billion technology enterprise to the public, investors generally hope adolescence can be put on hold.

Not so at Google, where founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin revealed Friday morning that an interview they gave to Playboy in April could force them to buy back any shares that are sold in the hotly anticipated deal.

The interview, in which the executives answered questions such as, "It's one thing to have volleyball games, refrigerators full of free juice and massages when you're a start-up, but can you maintain such a laid-back culture as a public company?" and "How has Google saved lives?" could be a legal headache. Executives are generally forbidden from talking publicly about their company in the run-up to an IPO, except in a prospectus. ...