Is Google worth as much as Amazon or Yahoo?
A very interesting CBS MarketWatch.com story that says that recent estimates put privately-held Google's valuation at $18 billion, almost as much as publicly-held Yahoo and Amazon, which it can be argued are much more mature companies:
Google's valuation came from sources who say the popular search engine is using the price to make potential purchases of smaller Internet companies.
As of Monday, the market cap of Yahoo (YHOO: news, chart) stood at about $21.7 billion; Amazon.com (AMZN: news, chart) at $19.5 billion; EBay (EBAY: news, chart) at $35.3 billion; and InterActiveCorp (IACI: news, chart) at $24.9 billion.
Google's revenue is driven by its core search technology whereas some of Yahoo's sales have come from HotJobs and Overture (OVER: news, chart) . Some of EBay's revenue has come from PayPal. Arguably, a company with organic growth is worth more than a company that has to buy it. Revenue at Google is expected to hit $700 million to $1 billion in 2003 from advertising and search services, according to U.S. Bancorp Piper Jaffray.