The most anticipated initial public offering of the year, the $3.3 billion IPO of Web search giant Google Inc, is now on the calendar for a mid-August debut, and for some, the deal cannot be over with soon enough.
After all the waiting, wondering and speculation about what the shares will price for, how the auction will perform, how much money banks will earn in fees, and how individual investors will fare in the offering, many are ready for the deal to have its day in the spotlight and be done with.
"Google is going to be a tsunami in the marketplace," said David Menlow, president of IPOfinancial.com. "Whether it's good or bad, it's going to be completely overpowering."
The Web search giant made the first official announcement it would pursue an IPO in April after months of speculation that an offering was inevitable given the company's size and regulatory requirements it start to disclose financial information.
Since that first announcement in a filing with securities regulators, the notoriously tight-lipped company has slowly parsed out information on the IPO through periodic updates with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.
It has let investors know it expects to sell its stock for between $108 and $135 a share through an auction that could value the company at more than $36 billion if it prices at the top end of expectations. The IPO is expected in the second week in August.
Next week's calendar is filling up with IPOs that will test the waters before Google makes it to market. Sixteen deals are expected to try to raise $3.66 billion next week, before Google reaches out for $3.3 billion more.
"Everyone has an eye on it," said Ryan Jacob, who manages the $80 million Jacob Internet Fund.
Google's management has now hit the road and is meeting potential investors. But the in-person meetings have not quelled investor anxiety over the auction or questions about whether the company deserves a $36 billion valuation.
"You see people sitting around kind of looking at each other out of the corner of their eyes saying: 'Am I going to be the fool here for not believing this and not wanting to pay for it?'" said a source who attended a luncheon Google held for potential investors and who asked not to be named. "It'll be interesting to see how many people are willing to play."
Others are waiting to see if there will be enough interest from institutional investors to keep the shares trading above $100 if the deal does price within its expected range.
"If you keep the high price the way it is, I believe it's pretty unlikely that the stock is going to be have any advance in the after-market," said Menlow, who has been openly critical of auction-based IPOs.
Institutions may stay away from the deal to avoid the possibility of holding shares that may quickly wind up trading below their IPO price, he said.
And some are waiting for the storm over the upcoming IPO to pass to see if Google, as a newly public company, will have an impact on the shares of its already public competitors. "It'll have more of an effect once it starts trading," Jacob said.
IPOs on the calendar for next week include CNL Hospitality Properties Inc, an owner of luxury resort hotels and spas, and Navteq Corp, a Chicago-based electronic map affiliate of Philips Electronics. Navteq provides digital map information for automotive and mobile navigation systems and for Internet- based mapping applications.
Also on the calendar is American Seafoods Corp, which will offer income deposit securities - a new hybrid security that pairs a company's stock and debt into a single unit that is sold into the public markets.
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