Google Inc hired Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs Group Inc to arrange its initial public offering, a sale that may raise as much as US$4 billion, a banker involved in the transaction said.
The sale by Google, the world's most used Internet search engine, would be the biggest IPO since CIT Group Inc's US$4.87 billion deal in July 2002. It "will certainly be the deal of the year," said Sanford Robertson, who founded investment bank Robertson, Stephens & Co before starting private-equity firm Francisco Partners LP.
Mountain View, California-based Google may sell a stake of about one-third in the IPO, giving the company a market value of about US$12 billion, the bankers said. The company will probably register the shares for sale with the Securities and Exchange Commission this month and sell them by April, they said.
By selling now, Google would take advantage of a rally in computer-related shares. The Nasdaq Composite Index, 42 percent of its value from technology stocks, has climbed 45 percent the past 12 months, closing today at its highest since January 2002.
Google's Internet site is the most-used in the world for Internet searches, according to research firm ComScore Networks. Google was used for 35 percent of Internet searches by US users in October, ComScore said.
Google's search results are also available on other companies' Web sites, including Time Warner Inc's America Online, which pay Google licensing fees.
But Yahoo Inc, which owns the most-used group of Internet sites, reportedly intends to stop using Google as its main search engine within a few months, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the matter.
Yahoo is attempting to regain its position as the first choice for people searching the Web; it has used Google, the world's most widely used search engine, since 2000, the newspaper said.
Google was founded by Stanford University graduate students Sergey Brin and Larry Page in 1998 and now employs more than 1,000 people.
ROLLER-COASTER RIDE: More than five earthquakes ranging from magnitude 4.4 to 5.5 on the Richter scale shook eastern Taiwan in rapid succession yesterday afternoon Back-to-back weather fronts are forecast to hit Taiwan this week, resulting in rain across the nation in the coming days, the Central Weather Administration said yesterday, as it also warned residents in mountainous regions to be wary of landslides and rockfalls. As the first front approached, sporadic rainfall began in central and northern parts of Taiwan yesterday, the agency said, adding that rain is forecast to intensify in those regions today, while brief showers would also affect other parts of the nation. A second weather system is forecast to arrive on Thursday, bringing additional rain to the whole nation until Sunday, it
LANDSLIDES POSSIBLE: The agency advised the public to avoid visiting mountainous regions due to more expected aftershocks and rainfall from a series of weather fronts A series of earthquakes over the past few days were likely aftershocks of the April 3 earthquake in Hualien County, with further aftershocks to be expected for up to a year, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said yesterday. Based on the nation’s experience after the quake on Sept. 21, 1999, more aftershocks are possible over the next six months to a year, the agency said. A total of 103 earthquakes of magnitude 4 on the local magnitude scale or higher hit Hualien County from 5:08pm on Monday to 10:27am yesterday, with 27 of them exceeding magnitude 5. They included two, of magnitude
CONDITIONAL: The PRC imposes secret requirements that the funding it provides cannot be spent in states with diplomatic relations with Taiwan, Emma Reilly said China has been bribing UN officials to obtain “special benefits” and to block funding from countries that have diplomatic ties with Taiwan, a former UN employee told the British House of Commons on Tuesday. At a House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee hearing into “international relations within the multilateral system,” former Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) employee Emma Reilly said in a written statement that “Beijing paid bribes to the two successive Presidents of the [UN] General Assembly” during the two-year negotiation of the Sustainable Development Goals. Another way China exercises influence within the UN Secretariat is
Taiwan’s first drag queen to compete on the internationally acclaimed RuPaul’s Drag Race, Nymphia Wind (妮妃雅), was on Friday crowned the “Next Drag Superstar.” Dressed in a sparkling banana dress, Nymphia Wind swept onto the stage for the final, and stole the show. “Taiwan this is for you,” she said right after show host RuPaul announced her as the winner. “To those who feel like they don’t belong, just remember to live fearlessly and to live their truth,” she said on stage. One of the frontrunners for the past 15 episodes, the 28-year-old breezed through to the final after weeks of showcasing her unique