Google prepared to wrap up an extraordinary share auction tonight, meaning a final price in the multi-billion-dollar listing will be announced within days.
The California-based company has asked regulators to issue an approval to sell shares tonight and it may close the bidding just an hour after it starts.
Google says it expects the auction will price its stock at between €108-135 a share, valuing the entire firm at up to $36 billion at the top of the range. Many analysts say such a price is unlikely, however, in a market of miserably weak technology stocks.
If Google announces the initial public offering (IPO) price tonight, trading on the Nasdaq under the stock symbol GOOG could start as early as tomorrow. Insiders reportedly say it could take a day or so longer.
Google shares may start trading at a 'clearing price' arrived through a complicated and unorthorodox auction. The company has said it might cut the price to enable more investors to get the stock and to help offset the risk of a first-day plunge on the stock market.
Investors who pre-registered for the auction have been placing bids since Friday.
The IPO, founded by computer whizz kids Sergey Brin and Larry Page, as been rocky. It hit headlines last week when the co-founders laid bare corporate details in an interview with Playboy magazine. The group said it believed the splash abided by securities regulations, which restrict information released ahead of an initial public offering.
A source close to the SEC said the market regulator would not stop the offering but could not, however, rule out future action against Google.
