AKU-2007-031

AKU Photo Archive (after Saul Leiter)

Initial Public Offering: Google, August 19, 2004

2004

C-print, diasec mounted

120 × 180 cm (Edition 4/5)

Acquisition

Purchased, 2007

Curator’s Note

Google elected to conduct its 2004 IPO via modified Dutch auction, setting a final price of $85 per share — below the initially proposed range of $108–$135 after institutional investors balked. The company's S-1 filing had included a letter from the founders citing Montaigne and warning that Google 'is not a conventional company.' This photograph was taken during the first hour of trading.

Exhibition

IPO: The Stock Market Listing as Spectacle