John Heilemann, who has been writing about companies in Silicon Valley for the last ten years, has one of the most comprehensive, critical & engaging pieces on the corporate structure and business dealings of Google that I have ever seen. The piece takes nearly a full 25 minutes to read, even at web speed, but the insight I gained reading this article was incredible. I feel like I actually know what it’s like in Google’s meetings – at least, those that deal with Wall Street.
One of the most revealing pieces from the article follows:
But the end of Google’s adolescence wasn’t optional. The boys had obligations to their investors and underlings. Doerr and Moritz, both sitting on funds that had been hammered by the collapse of the bubble, were keen to cash in their Google chips, while employees who’d been slaving for years were eager for a payday that would put rental housing behind them. On top of that, there was an SEC rule that would require Google (due to the number of shares it had given out) to start publishing its financials in April 2004. Public or private, the veil of fiscal secrecy was about to be lifted.
I knew about Larry & Sergey’s reluctance to go public, but I never realized the circumstances that forced their respecitve hands. Take your lunch break to read the article; you’ll feel far more prepared to think about corporate management from the “boys'” perspectives.
