In filing with SEC, Google estimates its market value at up to $36 billion

Monday, July 26th 2004, 8:50 am

By: News On 6

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (AP) _ Google Inc. said Monday it would sell 24.6 million shares in its initial public offering at an estimated price range of $108 to $135 per share, giving a long-awaited indication of what the leading Internet search company believes it is worth.

That would value the shares being offered in the IPO, which is expected to happen in August, at $2.66 billion to $3.32 billion. However, the amount the company itself expects to raise is $1.66 billion, because some of the shares being offered are being sold by existing stockholders.

Overall, Google would have a market capitalization of $29 billion to $36 billion, counting shares held by insiders. Only 9 percent of the company's stock is being offered in the IPO.

A market cap of $36 billion would make Google worth more than such corporate stalwarts as McDonald's Corp. and Sony Corp. and almost as much as drugstore giant Walgreen Co. Google rival Yahoo Inc. has a market cap of nearly $38 billion.

Mountain View-based Google also said in Monday's filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission that it would seek the ticker symbol ``GOOG'' in trading on the Nasdaq Stock Market.

The filing revealed that in the first six months of 2004, the company earned $143 million, or 54 cents per share, on revenue of $1.35 billion, as Google's booming growth continued. In the comparable period last year, the company's profit was $58.0 million, or 23 cents per share, on revenue of $560 million.