An interesting story on the front of today's Financial Times about the prospects of a Google IPO sometime very soon. Google executives spent last week sounding out merchant bankers about an IPO, according to the FT's source, with a view to getting a stock market listing by March next year. That FT link is likely to go behind a toll after today, although you can always follow the story elsewhere via Google news :-)
The most interesting part of the FT story is that the IPO could break with the traditional way of selling shares to the public. Google may opt for a public auction, which would likely lead to fewer (if any) big institutional investors getting first go at the shares, and more small investors getting in. "All the shares would end up with Aunt Agatha in Des Moines and Uncle Milt in Pittsburgh and there would be no real public market at all," moaned one investment banker. It wasn't explained why this would be a Bad Thing for anyone other than investment bankers...
