Neowin.net

Having completed their “Dutch style” share auction, Google have decided on a price of $85 per share. Revised down from the expected $135, the change will mean that Google only raise $1.67 Billion, setting the company value at about $24 Billion. Yahoo, in comparison, is valued at about $39 Billion.

Google will be offering 19.6 million shares, and will be open for business on Thursday. The shares will be traded under "GOOG".

Google's path to "IPO" has been marred with problems, each taking the glean off what was initially the most awaited IPO in technology history. Issues like breaching the "silence period" before selling (‘that’ playboy interview), and illegally giving shares to its employees, have culminated to bring down the perceived value of the Google offering. Google’s IPO followed a very non-standard route, which has annoyed many on Wall Street; reputable journal ‘The Economist’ wrote last week that if Google does succeed in its IPO, it could set a trend for other companies going public- to avoid traditional investment bankers and go it alone – the implication being that it could cost some businesses a lot of money that they’d make from managing IPO’s.

That said, Google will still gain an enormous amount of revenue from the share sale. They have yet to decide (or announce) exactly where all these funds will be going.

View: Google.com
View: Google IPO Monitor (not related to Google)

This leaves Nintendo, once again, with a lot of titles that are bound to gather critical acclaim - and almost certainly deservedly so - but with the exception of Metroid Prime 2 not that many that are likely to scythe through the competition during a hectic Christmas rush.

Any GBA owners bound to an elderly relative's couch this Christmas won't have too much to worry about, however, with a number of exciting titles due on the handheld - despite the impending launch of the Nintendo DS, which is due out in Europe in early 2005. In fact, it'll be interesting to see how GBA sales fare in the run-up to Christmas purely on that basis.

We'll be in the queue though, busily scrabbling to get hold of Mario Golf Advance Tour (Sept 17th), the eagerly awaited The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap (Nov 12th), Mario vs. Donkey Kong (Nov 19th), and - for the sake of working out what it is more than anything - "Super Mario Ball" (Nov 26th). Square die-hards will be pleased to see Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls down for early December, too.

Key exclusives due out on Nintendo platforms in the run up to Christmas:


GameCube

Wario Ware, Inc.: Mega Party Game$ - September 3rd

Animal Crossing - September 3rd

Pikmin 2 - October 8th

Donkey Konga - October 15th

Paper Mario 2: The Thousand Year Door - November 12th

Tales of Symphonia - November 19th

Metroid Prime 2: Echoes - November 26th


Game Boy Advance

Mario Golf Advance Tour - September 17th

Pokemon Leaf Green/Fire Red - October 1st

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap - November 12th

Mario vs. Donkey Kong - November 19th

Super Mario Ball - November 26th

Mario Party Advance - December 3rd

Final Fantasy I & II: Dawn of Souls - December 10th