This week marks the 10th year since Google went public with its IPO, which launched the company into a path that continuously changes how the world works.
Google CEO Larry Page has a vision that has the world functioning with Google at its center, with the company's technologies of driverless cars, smart home technology, robotic aides, Internet-connected eyewear and watches, all supplemented by Android smartphones, making Google a constant companion of people all over the world.
Page's vision was jump started when Google, a company that he co-founded with Sergey Brin in 1998, was put up with an IPO price of $85. The price was actually far below than the expected price range of $108 to $135, but ultimately, that didn't matter in the long term for Google, nor did the fact that the total number of shares placed was only 19.6 million, far below the target number of 25.9 million shares.
On the first day, the price closed at a rate 18 percent higher at $100.34. The IPO raised a total of about $1.2 billion, injecting the company with capital that it would use to further develop its business.
With all that money in hand, Google was able to hire the best people to work for them. The company now has an employee count of 52,000 people, which is about 20 times more than the number that worked for Google when it went public. It was also able to acquire promising technology companies such as YouTube, which is just one of the over 250 companies that Google purchased in the past 10 years.
Google's success with its IPO helped drive up demand for the succeeding IPOs of technology companies. According to University of Florida finance professor and IPO expert Jay Ritter, if not for Google, Facebook would never have achieved a market value of $104 billion on its IPO that was launched in May 2012. Alibaba Group, an e-commerce conglomerate from China, will also not have an expected value for its IPO at $150 billion.
Google is now currently valued at $391 billion, as its reach has extended far beyond its groundbreaking search engine. The company is now also a leader in Internet browsers, e-mail services, mobile operating systems and online video.
Google continues to develop, with its influence on the technology industry becoming such a gigantic force that it has been the subject of several antitrust investigations.
However, Google, even after 10 years from its IPO, will undoubtedly continue to expand as it looks to fulfill the vision of its CEO.
