Small investors miss out on Google auctionPosted 12/08/2004
Google has been accused of excluding small investors from its hotly anticipated initial public offering.
The deadline for registration passes today as the world's leading search engine prepares to float on the stock market.
Google had said originally that its auction-style flotation would allow smaller investors to get a piece of the action, unlike many of the IPOs during the dotcom boom.
However, some investors have been surprised to discover that they have been unable to meet the minimum requirements of approved brokers.
Investor Adam Katz told CBS Market Watch that his brokerage firm, Fidelity, had demanded a $100,000 minimum account balance.
"It seems to me that this type of excluding the little guys from the IPO runs counter to their initial reason for setting up this auction style," he said.
Earlier this week Google settled a long-standing patent dispute with rival Yahoo. Under the terms of the settlement Google will issue Yahoo with 2.7 million shares.
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