While I'm in the mood for chit chatting about google. For those that wanted to buy the Playboy just for the Google interview... too bad, you can get it free online: Amendment No. 7 to Form S-1
I find it funny that these guys have basically managed to screw up every aspect of the public offering. The stock has limited voting capability (I actually don't know what the condition is when a founder sells a share that is worth 10 votes to someone outside the organization. Does that mean that person gets 10 votes too? Or does it convert to a regular stock?), they talk outside of the quiet period (though again, it looks like that's just caused from delayed publication), etc etc. The guidance on repricing and the reduction in stock offering is particularly egregious. Basically, they had to guide repricing and reduce the number of shares to maintain a certain level because there were simply not enough takers. That's quite a bit of egg on their face. I know they'll be good to follow in the future, and a hell of a competitor for Yahoo and MSN forever, but this many mistakes is almost always a cause of people having too much power and not having enough people checking their behavior (I call it the "George Lucas effect").
To that end, checking behavior is a GOOD thing. EVERYONE needs an editor. The arrogance of people that would say I know better than everyone else is absolutely nauseating to me. If any of you ever catch me doing that, you have every right to slap me across the face. I'm not saying that people who try and implement their vision try and keep it as pure as possible, but having other people weigh in on your creation is not a bad thing. Listen to them! You might learn something.
