• by July 20, 2004

A heads up to search industry watchers and others interested in the impending Google IPO.

The search giant could let bidders know how much they will have to pay for its shares as early as this week. Google is supposed to issue quarterly results this week for the quarter ended June 30. It wants to raise $2.7 billion in a Dutch auction.

In a June filing with Securities and Exchange Commission, Google estimated its share value at $88.13, though some potential bidders are already worrying whether aggressive investors might bid up the stock's value. Google has reserved the right to change its share price based on bids it receives for shares during the auction. The company has said how many shares it will make available. Some analysts, according to published reports, already wonder whether $88 is too much. The company's value has been estimated at between $20 billion and $40 billion.

Still, much of that value is derived from the prospects and potential for growth in the search advertising arena. A few analysts have argued that search growth is slowing, albeit slowly, it is leveling off and that Google may be overvalued. At least 90 percent of Google's business revolves around the search advertising business and I, for one, think the company's lack of diversity will hurt it in the long run. I think Google realizes this too, hence, the Gmail initiative and other products and services it's cooking up in the Lab.

Either way, I wish Google would pull the trigger already on its much-hyped IPO. The company sure has kept itself in the spotlight long enough with all the IPO news. Talk about a rolling thunder. It's summer. Almost no one pulls off the biggest IPO of the year in August. I'm betting on a September trigger.