* * * * *

                               “Don't Be Evil”

> … there are many reasons one might want to buy a share of a company. The
> company might pay dividends, or it might offer the potential of paying
> dividends in the future. If you buy a big enough share you can have a real
> say in how the company is run. Even if you don't have the wherewithall to
> buy a big enough share to let you run the company, your small share might
> be sought out by someone who does have the means to buy a controlling
> interest. Or being a shareholder might entitle you to certain special
> privileges. (We own some stock in a winery that gives a 30% discount to its
> shareholders. We've made back our original investments many times over on
> wine discounts alone. The stock also pays dividends.)
>
> But with Google, none of those reasons apply. Google has explicitly stated
> that it will never pay dividends. They have explicitly said that they will
> offer no guidance to investors. Their stock structure is such that even if
> you bought every single publicly traded share of Google stock, Larry and
> Sergey would still control the company because their privately held stock
> has ten times as many votes as your publicly traded shares. So there is no
> hope that your shares will ever be of value to someone attempting a hostile
> takeover of Google. Such a thing is simply not possible, so no one will
> ever try.
>

“Xooglers: Speaking of trouble … [1]”

I had given pass to Google [2] over the whole China censorship thing [3]
primarily because they're a public company and as such, they are practically
required by law to increase shareholder value, and by passing up China, they
would be negligent in not entering one of the largest and fastest growing
economies in the world (if not the largest and fastest).

But I have to question Google's status as a public company. If buying stock
yields no dividends (not unusual for growing companies) nor gives influence
or voting rights (and I can't think of any other stock like that), can the
company be considered “public?” And if Google isn't “public” then why even
enter the China market as it goes against their “Don't Be Evil [4]” ethic?
(as far as the stock market goes, I'm guessing this is Larry Page [5] and
Sergey Brin [6] giving the finger to Wall Street, which I don't think is a
bad thing in and of itself, but China? What are they thinking?)

[1] http://xooglers.blogspot.com/2006/03/speaking-of-
[2] http://www.google.com/
[3] gopher://gopher.conman.org/0Phlog:2006/02/11.1
[4] http://investor.google.com/conduct.html
[5] http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html#larry
[6] http://www.google.com/corporate/execs.html#sergey

Email author at [email protected]