Internet giant Google shares begin trading, going for well above initial price

NEW YORK (AP) _ Shares of Google Inc. began trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Thursday, initially moving at $100 a share, substantially higher than its $85 offering price. <br/><br/>The IPO price,

Friday, August 13th 2004, 9:00 am

By: News On 6

NEW YORK (AP) _ Shares of Google Inc. began trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market on Thursday, initially moving at $100 a share, substantially higher than its $85 offering price.

The IPO price, set late Wednesday through an unorthodox auction that alienated many on Wall Street, cleared the way for the stock to start trading under the symbol ``GOOG.''

The stock started $15 higher to $100. Within a few minutes of trading, Google was at $97.48, with 4.5 million shares having traded hands.

The beginning of public sales culminated a unique and highly public initial stock offering for the 6-year-old dot-com dreamed up in a garage.

The $85 initial share price was short of Google's original expectation of $108 to $135 a share. It also came at the lowest end of Google's downward-revised range it made on Wednesday, when it also reduced the number of shares to be sold to 19.6 million from 25.7 million _ a move that was expected to buoy prices.