George Mannes
If you say you're going to sell your old car for $12,000, and you end up selling it for $8,000, are you a success or a failure?
That's one of the questions worth mulling over in the wake of Google's (GOOG Quote - Cramer on GOOG - Stock Picks) public offering of stock last week. The company didn't reap all the money that it originally indicated it would. And, judging by the 18% rise in Google on its first day of trading, it didn't get the full amount for its shares that a freely trading, liquid market would bear. But, say people who observed the company's IPO process from different angles, Google did all right for itself, for its new shareholders and for others as well. Perhaps the happiest of participants in the process were individual investors who were able to get allocations of Google shares at a price they could only dream about back in the heyday of the Internet stock boom: The company's actual offering price on the first day of trading. One of those satisfied customers was Phillip Pessar, an antiques dealer in Miami. "Originally, I wanted five shares just to have five shares -- to be part of the event," says Pessar. Through three different accounts at two different firms, Pessar placed bids on 20 shares of Google stock at a price of $135 a share, and ended up with 15 shares priced at $85 apiece. "It was exciting," says Pessar, who says he found himself caught up in the IPO process -- staying home and waiting for each Google-related email. "I was glued to my computer." Google's auction, says Pessar, "gave me an allocation which I might not have gotten," he says, adding that in conventional, prior IPOs in which he has wanted to participate, he hasn't gotten any allocation.
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