Google shares soar 18 per cent during first day's trading
20 August 2004
Google stock soared by 18 per cent a share to $100.335 during its first day of trading on Thursday.
The search engine's shares started trading at $85, lower than previously expected. Stock sold well when the shares first became available, though volume decreased as the day went on.
The Google stock finished its first day trading on the Nasdaq at $100.34.
The highly-anticipated Wall Street debut generated $1.67 billion, far less than Google had initially planned. The shares were sold via a 'Dutch auction' aimed at making shares available to smaller investors and the search giant originally hoped to open at between $108 and $135, generating as much as $3.6 billion.
The offering made billionaires of Google co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, at least on paper. The two former Stanford University students have collected around £22 million each from the initial public offering (IPO) and both men are believed to hold an estimated £1.7 billion worth of Google shares.
Google had a market value of $27.2 billion (€22bn) after its first day of public trading, on a par with General Motors Corp.
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