Google’s Founders Plan to Sell 10 Million Shares Combined
January 24th, 2010
Google’s founders plan to sell 10 million shares combined, or 5 million shares each. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who met each other while students at Stanford, have adopted 5 year plans to unwind their shares, and their combined ownership of the company will drop from 59% to 48%.
The move will put $2.75 billion in each of the founders’ pockets. They are currently both listed on Forbes’ top 400 richest Americans, both tied at number 11.
Google has done a lot of great things such their inception. Currently, the company boasts 68% of worldwide Internet searches. This comes as no surprise, and is even evident through popular language. “Google” has turned in to a verb in some cases. Don’t believe me? When someone wants to find something out, it’s common for someone to reply “I don’t know…try googling it.” This means log on to Google and see what comes up.
In addition to their search engine capabilities, Google also has launched a mobile phone that has taken the world by storm. The Nexus One will be available at T-Mobile locations and also on a special marketplace on Google that will be set up in the near future. This is an important move by the company, and it will be interesting to see what other technical gadgets are released in the future.
Google has also been involved in negotiations with China. The search engine was rumored to want to pull out because of censorship from the Chinese government, however the company is involved in negotiations to stay put in the Chinese market.
The sale of the founders’ interest in Google is a well-deserved payout for the two men. They’ve accomplished great things in a relatively short period of time.
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