Google Inc's stock price has been lagging the overall market so far, but that did not seem to bother several hundred mostly festive shareholders who attended the search leader's annual meeting.
About the only letdown during the 75-minute session on Thursday came when Google chairman Eric Schmidt said the company has no plans to split its stock, reiterating a stand that the board has consistently taken. The question comes up frequently because of Google's lofty stock price, which finished on Thursday at US$461.47.
But Google shares have not fared so well so far this year, gaining just US$0.99, or 0.2 percent, since the end of last year. Meanwhile, the bellwether Dow Jones industrial average has climbed 6 percent while the Standard and Poor's 500 index -- of which Google is a component -- has increased by 5 percent.
Google's stock has performed much better over the long haul, a factor that no doubt contributed to the convivial mood of the few hundred shareholders crammed into a small room at Google's Mountain View headquarters. The shares have increased more than fivefold since Google's initial public offering in August 2004.
Just as it had in its two previous annual meetings, Google buttered up the crowd beforehand by feeding them a free lunch from the same cafeteria that provides free meals to employees.
Los Angeles resident Lauren Babbette, who has owned about 30 shares of Google for the past two years, was so impressed with the hospitality that she got up during the meeting to thank Schmidt for treating her much better than she was last week when she attended Berkshire Hathaway Inc's annual meeting.
"I was so depressed after I got off the plane [returning from the Berkshire meeting] that I needed to go to some place with a little spirit like Google," Babbette said in an interview after the meeting. "I was treated like gold here and it's such a fun-loving place."
Preserving Google's famously collegiate atmosphere while also expanding into new markets represents the company's biggest challenge, Schmidt told reporters during a question-and-answer session before the start of the annual meeting.
Google has hired nearly 10,000 employees since the end of 2004 and still expects to add thousands of more workers before this year is over.
"In the last year, my biggest worry has been scaling the business," Schmidt said. "When you grow this quickly, you are bringing in employees who believe they understand the Google vision, but there is always the possibility you will lose the formula."
In other comments to reporters, Schmidt said Google has no interest in entering the bidding for Dow Jones and Co or Reuters Group PLC, which both received takeover offers this month. He predicted the company would clear all the necessary regulatory hurdles to complete its planned US$3.1 billion acquisition of ad distributor DoubleClick Inc by the end of the year.
Google's expansion has been fueled by its dominant position in the rapidly growing Internet ad market, which is expected to propel the company's annual revenue beyond the US$15 billion mark this year.
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
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
CHINA REACTS: The patrol and reconnaissance plane ‘transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,’ the 7th Fleet said, while Taipei said it saw nothing unusual The US 7th Fleet yesterday said that a US Navy P-8A Poseidon flew through the Taiwan Strait, a day after US and Chinese defense heads held their first talks since November 2022 in an effort to reduce regional tensions. The patrol and reconnaissance plane “transited the Taiwan Strait in international airspace,” the 7th Fleet said in a news release. “By operating within the Taiwan Strait in accordance with international law, the United States upholds the navigational rights and freedoms of all nations.” In a separate statement, the Ministry of National Defense said that it monitored nearby waters and airspace as the aircraft
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