Tuesday, August 17, 2004

GOOG and EBAY

Andrew Goodman points out that Google's latest 10-Q shows their six month revenues (ending June 30) to be an impressive $1.35B with nearly 100% growth over the year ago six month period.

Taking this one step further, it's interesting to compare GOOG with EBAY. In Q2 2004, Google had $700M in revenue, eBay had $773M. Net income from operations is about the same for both at 25-30% of revenue. Google grew at 125% compared to Q2 2003, eBay grew at 52%. Google's market cap is projected to be about $30B, eBay's is $52B.

There's so much uncertainty about Google's future income that I have a hard time determining what a fair value is for the company. But I think this comparison with eBay is instructive.

Update: It's being widely reported that Google's IPO is undersubscribed. The initial share price will be set at only $85, yielding a market cap of $23B, less than half of EBAY.

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