As Google Founders Sell Millions In Shares, They Still Keep Total Control (GOOG)

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is a company caught somewhere in the middle of public companies and private companies as far as investors should be concerned.  The dual class of shares allows the founders to maintain absolute control, even as they sell common stock.  Both Sergey Brin and Larry Page have become billionaires and are certainly among the most influential web executives out there.  Over the last week we have seen share sales from these two which added in another $63 million or do their cash balances.  Over the last week we have seen some $65 million or so in officer share sales at Google.

CEO Larry Page sold more than $15.9 million worth of common stock on June 11.  Co-Founder Sergey Brin sold more than $47.5 million worth of Google common shares on June 6.  Both sales appear to be conversions of Class B shares.  Another sale was seen by CFO Patrick Pichette of $1.14 million in common stock on June 11.

We recently highlighted that Google was just one of 11 other companies where shareholders have no power at all. These insiders can keep selling more and more shares to raise capital, but they will likely have total control over matters of a shareholder vote at Google for quite some time.

$65 million may be empire-building money for the bulk of the population, but Google’s market capitalization rate for its total equity value is currently just under $184 billion.

JON C. OGG