The real difference is that Google's IPO was a Dutch auction. This was particularly accurate because of how much information asymmetry there was with Google.

The real difference is that Google's IPO was a Dutch auction. This was particularly accurate because of how much information asymmetry there was with Google. Not everyone knew where the value in Google was. Everyone knows about Facebook. That complicates things. I wrote about this recently if you guys wanna take a look. http://ashoknayar.wordpress.com/2012/02/04/ipos-the-social-web-and-an-auction-from-holland/ http://ashoknayar.wordpress.com/2012/02/04/ipos-the-social-w...