Google picks bankers for IPO
Google has supposedly picked Credit Suisse First Boston and Morgan Stanley according to this Wall Street Journal story (subscription required):
Google's selection of the two big securities firms ends months of intense speculation over who on Wall Street would snag an assignment that is expected to generate investment-banking fees of nearly $100 million and huge bragging rights. An IPO of Google likely will be one of the biggest U.S. public offerings ever and, if successful, could trigger a new wave of IPO filings among other technology companies.
The deal has all of the hoopla of the biggest IPOs of the 1990s, when Netscape Communications sold shares publicly and helped set off a frenzy that sent the stock market soaring. As in some 1990s deals, this public offering stands to make some computer-science whiz kids wealthy beyond their wildest dreams, while also benefiting a cast of well-known venture capitalists. With nearly insatiable investor interest, it could put a price tag of $25 billion on a company that didn't exist a decade ago, making it more valuable than retailer Sears, Roebuck & Co. and hotel operator Marriott International Inc.