April 26, 2004

Internet search firm Google Inc. has moved one step closer to its eagerly awaited initial public offering, choosing Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston to be lead underwriters, according to a published report Monday.

Plans surrounding the IPO will probably be announced this week, the Wall Street Journal reported, citing people familiar with the situation.

The IPO, widely expected to value the six-year-old firm at about $20 billion, would enrich Google's founders and early venture investors and give it a valuable currency for acquisitions as it takes on rivals Yahoo Inc. (YHOO: Research, Estimates) and Microsoft Corp.

Google's IPO is the most hotly anticipated IPO since the tech bubble burst in 2000.

The brainchild of two Stanford University graduate students -- Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who together hold 30 percent or more of the company -- Google revolutionized Web searching in 1998 by offering a simple and powerful way to find information based on the number of links to a page.

Credit Suisse First Boston, a unit of Credit Suisse Group and Morgan Stanley (MWD: Research, Estimates), would share in a pool of investment banking fees of almost $100 million, the paper reported.

Source: CNNfn.com

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