Just what Google didn't need, on the eve of its auction for a $3.3 billion initial public offering: the Securities and Exchange Commission wondering whether a Playboy interview with co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, due to hit the newsstands August 13, violated the "quiet period" ahead of the IPO, now due to launch next week.
The Wall Street Journal's online edition reported August 12 that the SEC was examining the interview, which Playboy said was conducted before Google filed in April for its IPO. Page and Brin are said to have discussed in the interview how the IPO might affect the company's culture and future course, the Journal said.
Google's IPO has gone somewhat quickly from being one of the most anticipated tickets in Wall Street history to possibly one of the biggest public relations headaches the online search kings have suffered, especially since revelations that Google admitted it might have issued shares illegally to current and former workers and consultants.
The unique auction, called a prelude to what still might be the largest IPO in the United States this year, will begin Friday the 13th at 9 a.m. EDT, according to a Google announcement. If the IPO price comes to between $108 and $135 a share on 25.7 available shares, as has been expected, it could value Google at over $36 billion when the full IPO launches next week.
But the company's unorthodox business style may have bitten it in its own face for once. For one thing, according to several reports, the unusual IPO auction process, growth concerns, and what's described as "a bare bones roadshow," have joined with the new regulatory concerns to alienate some investors and stir up rounds of negative press for the usual search darlings.
"By trying to be unique and be cute, they've essentially alienated people," said Colorado investment banker Ben Holmes, managing member of Protégé Funds, to the Associated Press.
