Google shares plummet past $300, reach three year low

Google's share price has dipped below $300 for the first time in three years, after some Wall Street guessmen decided the ad broker's revenues are on the wane. After a high of $747.24 on November seventh of last year, the company's stock closed at $291 in Nasdaq trading yesterday, and today, it dropped another two per cent to …

[Craig]

Selling up

My guess is that people are cashing in valuable shares to free up actual cash resources. Once the ball starts rolling the panic sets in as others see the value of their shares dropping and decide to sell up before they end up making a loss.

Pure guesswork. I don't know enough to be able to make an educated guess so it's just logical conjecture based on what little I know.

[Webster Phreaky]

When it gets down to $25 per share ...

.... it'll be all it's worth.

Me wonders if all the Apple Kool Aid Drinkers are enjoying the AAPL +$100 Downward Slide since it's peak earlier this year!! (That's OFF OVER 100 PERCENT) 8^P He he he he he he he .....

Geez, MS and IBM are only off 45% ......

Wonder which companies valuation was all a bubble??? He he he he he he he .....

[Max]

Christmas

They actually think ad revenue will be going down during craze-mas holiday spending?

[Solomon Grundy]

No Surprise Here

I mean everyone knew this was coming. Companies that actually make cool shit and sell it for bit $$ don't have share prices in the $700 range. It was all just silly shit anyway - any software company is ultimately going to cap in the $40 range since they don't make anything of value anyway. I made my Google monies two months after the IPO and I don't have any remorse. Fuck them.

[Anonymous Coward]

@ Solomon Grundy

Your explanation almost made me fall of my chair in laughter. I hope it's a joke, since it couldn't be further from the truth. The only reason Google had such a high share price is that they hadn't had a split since launch. Most companies split their stock whenever it exceeds a reasonable amount just to keep the price of a round-lot (100 shares in the US) down at a reasonable level. Google is one of a handful of companies that do things differently. Since you don't have to have a fixed number of shares in a company, the only way to compare the share value of companies is to look at Market Cap (share price x number of shares in very basic terms).

Google have a market cap of around $100bn, this compares favourably with Apple at about $85bn. Microsoft are at about $190bn.

[Destroy All Monsters]

A title is required.

>> any software company is ultimately going to cap in the $40 range since they don't make anything of value anyway

wat

[Lou]

The shares market is LA LA Land

Think back pre-dot.com crash - everybody was happy, holding hands, dancing in the sunlight holding hands and singing LA LA LA!!! And then the whole IT shares market collapsed - why - because there is ABSOLUTELY NO <self censored removal of swear words> relationship between the shares value of most companies and its real value - even if you add in murky things like intellectual capital.

So why did we all go down that line again - why is Google still at such a high share value? What makes them different from IBM, HP or shall I dare to say it Sun? Do they have any real patents, factories, products that you can buy? Is that a recipe for something to collapse in a flash? (<--- That is a question - I am not making any specific recommendations or insightful reasoning which should drive people/sheep to buy or sell ... anything.) Because we keep on believing the people who use our money to create up and down cycles in the market. and we with our built in sheep mentalities - and the mind spinners is using it to their best value.

[Solomon Grundy]

Doubters

Software is still a basically immature industry (in terms of market share). In the medium term these companies will plateau and be worth ~$40 for leaders and significantly less for tie-in/bubble companies. It's history here you know.

If you're doubting me look at what venture capitalists are saying about software as a whole. They're putting their big investments back into tangible products (i.e manufactured) that provide lots of jobs and do more to contribute to GDP. The things that get government attention and the good will of taxpayers. The things that tend to last more than 1.8 years (the average lifespan of a software company).

Do your research before you comment...

[Anonymous Coward]

@Lou

My guess is that Google is at a high share value because it's making an ever-loving fuckton of money. Just an idea.

[Matt Bradley]

@Webster

Yeah. I spotted that huge AAPL stock slide on the Dashboard stock widget my new MacBook. Were you still waiting for your PC load up IE before you saw it?

Thanks for the heads up all the same.

[Jim]

@Webster

"Me wonders if all the Apple Kool Aid Drinkers are enjoying the AAPL +$100 Downward Slide since it's peak earlier this year!! (That's OFF OVER 100 PERCENT)"

If I read this right, you claiming that sellers are actually paying people to 'buy' Apple shares? If a share loses 100% of its value then the new value is $0 no? Over 100% = <$0

@AC

Share value != Actual Value

If it did then there would be fewer credit issues right now (probably)

[Greg Kerr]

@Solomon Grundy

You are an idiot if you believe that to be true. Your answer demonstrates you know absolutely nothing about investing and don't even understand the basic concept of a share.

I think it is you who needs to do some research.

[jake]

Google's a paper-only company, anyway.

Remember, you only make a profit when you sell your shares. Until then, they are paper and paper only. When Google insiders start selling off their stock, it's going to plummet as everyone realizes they are selling stuff that nobody wants, and more and more people are beginning to learn to block.

@Webster ... The article had nothing to do with Apple. Lose the act. You are boring. (Before you say it, no I'm not an Apple fanboi. I've been using UN*X for 30+ years, WinDOS since the DOS 0.98 beta, and Apple gear since it was 6502 based. Right tool for the job, and all that).

[Greg]

@Salomon Grundy

Did you actually read what the other guy said to you?

How can you be so clueless?

Read that:

A company CHOOSES how many shares it has. Hence, it's absolutely stupid to expect the price of a share to be $40 across a range of companies regardless of the number of shares.

To say it otherwise: I create a software company that does nothing interesting, as you say. My friend does the same. Then I IPO by making 100 shares, while my friend IPOs making 1000 shares.

According to you, it means his company, just because he DECIDED to create 1000 shares each of 0.1% of the company while I created 100 shares representing 1% of the company, will be worth 10 times as much as mine, while doing the same crap.

Do you really think the majority of investor is as stupid as that? Sorry, but they're not.

In the end, if we do the same crap, we'll be worth the same, which means MY shares might be worth $40, but then HIS will be worth $4, not $40.

Talk about doing your research...

Oh, and btw, as AC said, you can split about whenever you want, when you're heading a company. So it means if I'm not happy with the worth of my company, then according to you, I just need to say "each share is now split into two shares representing each half of the former one", and then, because every share goes to $40, the global value of my company will double. How clever, I think I'll do that every month.

[Dave]

hmmm

I think there just putting this research out to crash the price, they probably sold there shares for a high price last week and made quite a bit of $$ overall, put this research paper in the drop the price, and they'll be able to buy there shares back again at a low price and oh look the share price will go back up in the near future and they'll make more money!!

[Joel Stobart]

@Solomon Grundy

Surely the market cap is more relevant than the shareprice. The shareprice is largely determined by how much the companies are going to make over the medium term divided by the number of shares.

the price earnings ratio is going to determine which stocks represent good value. I would suggest that googles shareprice will bounce around over 40 for a considerable time to come.

Do you think that microsoft at 21 (Mkt Cap: 189.03B) is a "bargain"?

Alternatively, If you talking about the whole google empire being worth $40? I would buy it at twice the price.

- Joel

[Lou]

@David

Actually David - what are they selling? Adverts?

When is the last time you clicked on a google add?

[Anonymous Coward]

@Jim

"If I read this right..."

Yup, I read it that way too. I think he's quite "special" tho, so don't worry about it

[jake]

@Lou

>When is the last time you clicked on a google add?

More to the point, when was the last time you SAW a google ad?

[Solomon Grundy]

@Greg Kerr

I never called you an idiot, neither have my broker or my VC interests. Venture money has already been cut out of cloud computing and come January there won't be new funding for social networks or 95% of Web2.0 projects. With a few exceptions venture money has already been taken out of search and for the most part online advertising. Investors are concerned that there has been too much focus on tech and not enough on real world products. They're getting back to reality and that will force a top on most software companies.

Once again, do your research and don't get too hung up on things you're still trying to understand. It'll make a bigger man of you.

[Anonymous Coward]

@Solomon Grundy

"[...] and come January there won't be new funding for social networks or 95% of Web2.0 projects."

Oh please, please, tell me this is true. If this means crap like Facebook will go down in flames, I'm all for it. As well as killing those stupid web2.0 "I look cool but have no income" projects.

However, I don't think Google will plummet that much (without a split), unless it suffers from a mass advert withdrawal effect.