Hershey Ipo

In 1997, Google, a play on the word googol, was born. Google is an internet information provider. Larry Page and Sergey Brin, who met at Stanford, created the search engine with a mission to "organize a seemingly infinite amount of information on the web," as stated in Google company profile. On September 4, 1998 Larry and Sergey incorporated Google and later that year "PC Magazine" placed Google on the Top 100 Sites. Google has acquired several companies, including Urchin in 2005 and Picnik in 2010. Among many other programs, Google launched AdWords in 2000, Google Talk in 2005 and Google Instant in 2010. Google continues to grow globally, developing partnerships with companies like Yahoo!, Motorola Mobility and AOL.

August 18, 2004, Google had its Initial Public Offering (IPO) of 19,605,052 shares of Class A stock; the ticker symbol on NASDAQ is GOOG. The opening price of the stock in 2004 was $85 per share, according to the Google company profile. On its first day, Google closed at $100 per share. NASDAQ lists the 52-weeks high of GOOG at $670.25. Google stock peaked at just over $700 per share in 2007.

Google generates majority of its revenue through its AdWorks online advertising, as stated in the SEC Annual Report. In assessing the financial performance of a company, investors are interested in the core or sustainable earnings of a company. In addition, investors are interested in making comparisons of varying SEC filings. There are three types of comparisons to improve the decision usefulness of financial information; intracompany basis, intercompany basis and industry averages.

Intracompany basis, comparisons within a company, is often useful to detect changes in financial relationships and significant trends. A comparison of Google's current year cash amount with the prior year cash amount shows an increase. Likewise, a comparison of Google's year-end cash amount with the amount of its total assets at year-end shows the proportion of total assets in the forms of cash.

Intercompany basis, comparisons with other companies, provides insight into a company's competitive position. Investors can compare Google sales for the year with the total sales of its competitors.

Industry averages, comparisons with industry averages, provide information about a company's relative positions with the industry. Financial statement readers can compare Google financial data with the average for its industry compiled by financial ratings organizations such as Dun & Bradstreet, Moody's and Standard & Poor's or with information provided on the Company's financial website.

To analyze financial statements and the significance of the data, three methods of analyses are used: horizontal, vertical and ratio. Horizontal analysis, also known as trend analysis, is a technique for evaluating a series of financial statement data over a period