Technically, this is an e-mail that informs all 12,230-plus Googlers that the inhouse market for transferable stock options has been shut down.
April 23, 2007 (Press Release) --
Google is proud of the innovative products it regularly releases to the public, from the ever-more-targetted Internet search results to an automatic Web-based airport-ride finder.
But the coolest stuff is often reserved for Google employees. And last month they got access to a killer tool, otherwise known as the "supersecret Google is about to buy Yahoo" alert.
Technically, this is an e-mail that informs all 12,230-plus Googlers that the inhouse market for transferable stock options has been shut down.
In reality, it means something really, really, big is about to happen to the company that could affect the stock price.
"For example, if Google decides it wants to buy Yahoo, that's a really big deal," said David Sobota, Google's senior corporate counsel. "We wouldn't want to disclose that to the world the first time Eric Schmidt comes to a handshake agreement with Terry Semel about it, because that could disrupt the negotiation process.
In a question-and-answer session with Sobota in early January, employees worried that word of the alert could spread. A transcript of the session was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday as part of a series of disclosures Google has been making about its new program, which lets employees sell their stock options to outside investors.
"If we are only shutting down this program when there are big deals in the making, won't shutting it down actually cause us harm, because people would realize we are about to buy Microsoft?" only employee asked.
Google's auction program is managed by Morgan Stanley, while Smith Barney is administrator of the employee stock-option program. A handful of other major financial institutions are participating as bidders in the program, which kicked off on April 23 in Google's offices in the United States, as well as Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, India, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Turkey and the UK.
Some employees pushed Sobota for a realistic example. Would the launch of Gmail of triggered a TSO shutdown? Or the purchase of YouTube?
"Gmail was a release of a really cool product," Sobota responded. "At the same time the financial impact for Wall Street was not huge. And so likely we deem that not material."
As for YouTube: "Our stock price rose as soon as it leaked," he noted. Would the YouTube deal have been material non-public information? Probably Yes."
Author: Elise Ackerman
Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/
But the coolest stuff is often reserved for Google employees. And last month they got access to a killer tool, otherwise known as the "supersecret Google is about to buy Yahoo" alert.
Technically, this is an e-mail that informs all 12,230-plus Googlers that the inhouse market for transferable stock options has been shut down.
In reality, it means something really, really, big is about to happen to the company that could affect the stock price.
"For example, if Google decides it wants to buy Yahoo, that's a really big deal," said David Sobota, Google's senior corporate counsel. "We wouldn't want to disclose that to the world the first time Eric Schmidt comes to a handshake agreement with Terry Semel about it, because that could disrupt the negotiation process.
In a question-and-answer session with Sobota in early January, employees worried that word of the alert could spread. A transcript of the session was filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission Friday as part of a series of disclosures Google has been making about its new program, which lets employees sell their stock options to outside investors.
"If we are only shutting down this program when there are big deals in the making, won't shutting it down actually cause us harm, because people would realize we are about to buy Microsoft?" only employee asked.
Google's auction program is managed by Morgan Stanley, while Smith Barney is administrator of the employee stock-option program. A handful of other major financial institutions are participating as bidders in the program, which kicked off on April 23 in Google's offices in the United States, as well as Argentina, Australia, Belgium, Canada, China, Czech Republic, France, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, India, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, Turkey and the UK.
Some employees pushed Sobota for a realistic example. Would the launch of Gmail of triggered a TSO shutdown? Or the purchase of YouTube?
"Gmail was a release of a really cool product," Sobota responded. "At the same time the financial impact for Wall Street was not huge. And so likely we deem that not material."
As for YouTube: "Our stock price rose as soon as it leaked," he noted. Would the YouTube deal have been material non-public information? Probably Yes."
Author: Elise Ackerman
Source: http://www.mercurynews.com/
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