Google may have illegally issued shares

The company, which has long touted its ethical credentials, immediately told the world about the possible violations Wednesday in a prospectus.

The company offered to buy back the affected shares and outstanding stock options for a total of $25.9 million, including interest payments.

It seems that the whole thing was a clerical cock up that occurred sometime between September 2001 through June 2004.

Google failed to register 23.2 million shares of common stock and 5.6 million outstanding stock options with securities regulators. The affected common stock is owned by 1,105 current and former employees, as well as company consultants.

It is not clear if the authorities will accept the share buy-back as a way of resolving the issue and the company might face court action.

What's clear about the forthcoming IPO is that Wall Street doesn't like the way Google is doing things. Hardly a day goes by without a report in local newspaper the Wall St Journal criticising the unorthodox way Google does things. µ

L'INQ
Associated Press