Web search engine Google Inc may conduct its eagerly-awaited initial public offering as soon as next Tuesday, August 10, the Wall Street Journal said on Wednesday, citing no sources.
The company's planned mid-August IPO, which is being conducted through an auction process, might raise as much as $3.3 billion.
The newspaper also said that some institutional investors, including mutual funds and hedge funds, are reluctant to bid a high price for the IPO.
It said some investors are concerned that Google shares might fall soon after the IPO, or that some Google executives, employees and early investors might begin to unload some shares as soon as 15 days after trading begins, an unusually brief IPO "lockup" period.
Some investors believe that demand for Google shares won't surge until the stock falls to about $100 per share, below the $108 to $135 per share that Mountain View, California-based Google has estimated it is worth, the newspaper said. The high end of the range would value Google at more than $36 billion.
"The price tag is just very expensive," Jack Ablin, chief investment officer at Harris Trust & Savings Bank, told the newspaper. "I expect the process to go pretty well but the stock to trade down.
Google, whose shares will trade on the Nasdaq under the ticker symbol "GOOG," began taking bids on Friday for the "Dutch auction" process it is using to offer 24.6 million shares.
Bidders may apply at http://www.ipo.google.com to get an identification number to participate in the auction.
These bidders will indicate the price they are willing to pay and the number of shares they want. Google and its lead underwriters, Credit Suisse First Boston and Morgan Stanley, will determine the highest price at which there is demand for all of the shares, and price the shares at or below that price.
Google's prospectus says that 15 days after trading begins, lockup agreements restricting the sale of shares will begin to expire on 4.6 million shares held by various parties.
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