Comment Re:About fucking time. (Score 2, Interesting) 408
Be careful with that mortgage. Google is so widely known that the demand for stock may be quite disconnected from any actual business value. Further diluting the business value is the Ben and Jerry's style capital structure which essentially guarantees that the people that buy the stock at the relatively high prices of an IPO will have no real ownership.
The way this shows up most negatively is when a company is doing poorly, the stock price tends to be limited on the low side to what it's worth to an acquiring company. Essentially, they don't trust their new "owners." Of course if they don't do poorly, no problem!
Between the S1 (and the S1/A's sure to follow) filing's going effective in a month or so, expect to see some interesting, if arcane, discussions on corporate governance sites.
It's laughable that Buffett is quoted in some favorable press reports. Buffett is known to dislike governance gimmicks like this.
One other thing. Free, real time Edgar filings are available to everyone at www.sec.gov. They used to be delayed so these other vendors could make money but no longer are.