Google Twists Open Stock Spigot

Google's(GOOG Quote) highly anticipated secondary offering was priced late Wednesday at $295 a share, below its closing price of $303.

Google sold 14,159,265 shares directly to institutional investors (a number equal to pi minus the initial "3" -- apparently Google wanted to be clever, but not badly enough to sell 31,415,927 million shares). Institutional investors had been showing strong interest in the secondary shares.

The offering may prove to be another round in the clumsy tango Wall Street has been dancing with Google. During Google's IPO last summer, when it issued 19.6 million shares, big investors largely shunned the stock, driving the offering price down to $85, an embarrassing misstep when you consider that the stock is trading more than 3.5 times that price. ...