No One Following Google Down The Auction IPO Trail
from the breaking-down-the-doors-for-no-one dept
When Google first decided to do a Dutch auction style IPO, some thought it would put more attention on Dutch auctions, and lead other companies to feel that it was a viable way to go public. What they didn’t expect was that Google would make the process so complex and cumbersome, that many simply stayed away during the IPO process (apparently, only to buy in slightly later, shoving the stock up to current levels). The end result, however, is that the Dutch auction process didn’t really come off looking that impressive, and (so far) no other company has decided to make use of the process in selling shares to the public. Wall Street (who hates the idea of Dutch auction IPOs) must be absolutely thrilled.
Comments on “No One Following Google Down The Auction IPO Trail”
Not so surprising
There probably aren’t many companies who could really expect to pull this off. Google had very broad exposure prior to setting up their auction and there weren’t many people who didn’t know what google was. Their product was it’s own best advertising.
The vast majority of companies that bring an IPO to market are not brand names like Google and the few who are (UPS) are more likely to attract the professional investor’s with more money to spend by going the wall street route.
I think the lesson that will be garnered from this is IF you are well known (and loved) you really don’t need Wall Street to go public and rake in the money. However, it’s still the wise thing to go with a IPO manager otherwise.