nytimes.com — Bonnie Brown was fresh from a nasty divorce in 1999, living with her sister and uncertain of her future. On a lark, she answered an ad for an in-house masseuse at Google, then a Silicon Valley start-up with 40 employees. After 5 years of kneading engineers’ backs, Ms. Brown retired, cashing in most of her stock options, which were worth millions.
Nov 12, 2007 View in Crawl 4
af_geekNov 12, 2007
In a word: Yes.
hobomasterNov 12, 2007
Depends more on the number of shares out there. The stock market is supply and demand, so if there aren't that many shares, a high value per share makes sense. It's all about what percentage of the company you're getting for that $633. Google hasn't split it's stock much, so that's not unreasonable. Do you remember how many times Microsoft split it's stock when it was at its peak? I don't think Google stock is that overvalued, if at all.
orlyfactorNov 12, 2007
Ain't luck a wonderful thing.
theportlanderNov 12, 2007
Almost every company gives some type of stock options to full time employees.
darksydxxNov 13, 2007
smoking a joint and gettin a back rub is heavenly
Closed AccountNov 13, 2007
You're aware that your doctor wasn't threatening to kill you, right? He's telling you the truth- Smoking cigarettes will shorten your lifespan. If cigarettes killed you within several months of your first use, Big Tobacco wouldn't exist. Next you're going to tell me that you don't care if he tells you that you've got cancer.In response to your original post, there's a lot more than "is it online-only" to the value of Google's stocks. You buy a share in the company when you buy shares at all, and Google hasn't split in a while, so the value simply doesn't go down so long as Google's expected profits continues to soar. Of course, it will always keep going up so long as advertisements remain prevalent because Google offers a form of advertisement more effective than anything in history. You search for FHM and Maxim online and you'll start getting ads to subscribe to adult magazines. You google Starbucks and you get links to find the nearest Starbucks and buy Starbucks online. Of course that's going to be worth a LOT of money. Normally, they'd split their stocks, and the value of each stock would go down( at which point I'm sure you'd think it was a fair price because your understanding is clearly shallow), but they haven't done that.
maldonNov 13, 2007
So that's their secret. Back rubs. Hmmm.
brainscanNov 13, 2007
Ahhh... I wish I had checked back in time to school you guys!- I don't care about the dollar price per share. I own shares of Berkshire Hathaway, which are currently priced at $4,521.96 per share.- I've read a few books, but most influential in my decision not to ever buy Google is "The Future for Investors: Why the Tried and the True Triumph Over the Bold and the New" by Jeremy J. Siegel (Russell E. Palmer Professor of Finance at University of Penn's Wharton School). No offense, but I trust his analysis more than any Digger.- I'm also accounting for behavioral economic theories from people like Daniel Kahneman. Basically, growth stocks are expected to grow, so when they do, expectations are not violated, and the stock price doesn't move. However, when growth stocks don't grow, expectations are violated, and the stock price does move (down).I wish you all good luck with Google, but right now, my money's avoiding it like the plague.