• San Jose Mercury News, Monday, April 23, 2007 10:45 AM

When Google is about to announce something really big, the company now sends out a mass internal email informing its 12,230-plus employees that the in-house market for transferable stock options has been shut down. That's actually like a massive fire drill for the press to get ready for something momentous.

For the SEC, the move keeps the stock price from being disrupted prior to a big deal. In the email, Google calls it the "supersecret Google is about to buy Yahoo" alert, citing examples of the company buying either of its two biggest Web rivals: Yahoo or Google. On Friday, Google released a transcript of a Q&A session it held with employees in January to the SEC as part of a series of disclosures it has been making about the new automated program.

It's a necessary feature to a cool program, but one that could make it instantly known that Google is about to make a big announcement. But what constitutes a big announcement? Google said it would only shut down the TSO market prior to something like the acquisition of YouTube; it would stay open for the unveiling of a new product (which happens several times a week) like, say, Gmail. A press leak would spur reporters to try and get information out of their Google contacts.

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