Big Investors Unimpressed With Google 'Roadshow'

Though many have hailed Google's more egalitarian style of appealing to individual investors with an auction-style Initial Public Offering (IPO), some institutional investors are grousing about the process.

Such investors have complained that Google executives shared relatively little information about their company in a so-called "roadshow" presentation for hundreds of institutional investors in New York City, The Wall Street Journal reported on July 29.

Though Google says they are complying with securities rules restricting the company from sharing some information before its IPO, lawyers for some of the 435 institutional investors there said Google could have shared more information without violating the law.

For example, the investors said that Google failed to share any information about third party relationships and expectations for future revenue growth.

The Wall Street Journal reported that some investors thought the auction-style IPO might be overrun by speculation from private investors. With share prices expected to be in the $108 to $135 range, these investors said they planned to make their bid but considered the stock to be expensive.

Yet, the Mountain View, CA-based search engine company is one of the few bright stars in the industry today, having doubled its revenue in 2003 alone.