Comments on: Is Google Worth $182.4 Billion?

By: Hugh Heferstein

Hugh Heferstein — Mon, 04 Jan 2010 20:24:54 +0000

No I would not buy Google or any part there of it’s over priced by $575.00 a share and the worm will turn in the market crash of 2017.

By: Cody

Cody — Sat, 18 Apr 2009 23:16:34 +0000

I think i would buy google but i would offer them more, becasue it would be fun to go arond and say “I own google” ;DD

By: Foobarista

Foobarista — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 08:44:21 +0000

If everyone invested like Buffet, the world would be a lot poorer and Silicon Valley would not exist. His skill is in finding the undervalued sure thing, not in taking risks.

As for Google, it’s definitely in the “late hubris” phase of a tech company: wild growth and massive hiring justified by the need to “stock up on talent”, and perks designed to keep you permanently at work. Pretty much every tech company that lasts for awhile goes through this phase, and the trick is in how they survive their first major trip-up. Cisco, Amazon, Yahoo, Apple, and even MSFT all went through this phase and survived, but many companies like Silicon Graphics – which built Google’s current HQ – did not.

Google’s model is to have lots of little skunkworks groups throw out “beta” products and put them onto its vast infrastructure, and see what gets taken up by the marketplace. The biggest weakness with its model is that Google is impatient – it wants success in O(months) and will quietly kill projects if they don’t take off quickly, but it often takes several iterations of a technology before you start to get it figured out.

Frankly, outside of ad-driven search, not much has taken off money-wise, although Google is skilfully leveraging its muscle in various ways to try to get into wireless broadband and other areas.

I’d probably pass on Google at the moment, but they have as good a shot as any to hit another home run if they have a bit of luck.

By: Russell Bailyn

Russell Bailyn — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 02:41:03 +0000

It would be a Buffet question–except for the fact that Buffet doesn’t buy “growth stocks.” Growth stocks always seem overvalued because their prices factor in future growth potential. Obviously none of us would buy Google for $182 million. That would be ridiculous. But if we trust Sergey & Larry, and believe in the growth of the Web (in many ways led by Google) it may pose a more difficult question.

By: Patrick

Patrick — Thu, 04 Oct 2007 00:38:42 +0000

No, I don’t think I would buy Google for $182 billion. I think Google is a great company, but there are other things I would be doing with that much money.

By: Kurt

Kurt — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 19:35:09 +0000

There isn’t a single number to back any of these “no way”s up. Just putting a big number on the table and saying “would you buy it” is meaningless. One would hope the people who are paying $182 billion for the company (current investors) have done a little analysis.

By: Moneymonk

Moneymonk — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 19:20:38 +0000

$182b, no way I will take that money and buy 5 smaller companies.

However I may buy some shares in GOOG

By: DoubelD

DoubelD — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 14:28:21 +0000

This is a classic Buffet question, He never invest in a company unless he will buy the entire company, In my opinion $182 billion is too much for google, Yes people will say it’s a growth play and Etc, But the question we should ask is if the US economy is hit with an recession how much is google worth, So my answer is no I will not buy the entire company I will not even buy a single share at this price.

By: Aaron Smith

Aaron Smith — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 13:40:25 +0000

I certainly wouldn’t buy Google for $182 Billion. The company has a higher market cap than a ton of other older and very established companies such as INTC, CVX, AIG, etc. It actually isn’t far behind MSFT now. Amazing.

By: WearyTraveler

WearyTraveler — Wed, 03 Oct 2007 13:18:39 +0000

If I had $182 million, I would put it in the bank and live happily ever after…