Google filed with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission to sell as much as $2.7 billion in stock in an IPO. They will be auctioning shares. Earned $105.6 million on revenue of $961.8 million in the 2003 fiscal year. In the first quarter of 2004, they earned $25.8 million on revenue of $178.9 million.

In a 1996 deal, the royalties were evenly split three ways among Mr. Brin and Mr. Page, the computer science department and the university's engineering school. David R. Cheriton, a computer science professor at Stanford, introduced Mr. Bechtolsheim to Google's founders. In August 1998, the four sat on the porch of Mr. Cheriton's Palo Alto home, where Mr. Page and Mr. Brin tried to demonstrate their product for Mr. Bechtolsheim. Before the pair could finish, he had decided to write them the first of two $100,000 checks. "They needed money to pay the lawyers to incorporate the company," he said. "And I wanted to make sure I was part of this company."

Part of their s1 [yes, it *IS* a long form - as Sergey Brin said!]: Last year we created Google Grants - a growing program in which hundreds of non-profits addressing issues, including the environment, poverty and human rights, receive free advertising. And now, we are in the process of establishing the Google Foundation. We hope someday this institution may eclipse Google itself in terms of overall world impact by ambitiously applying innovation and significant resources to the largest of the world's problems.

That huge! But the question is if you would buy their stock? CNN analyzes this question in their Once hot, now not article along with an interesting chart of the symbols that have been hot once in their lifetime.

Key Dates for Google [Forbes]: Engine created '96, Incorporated '98, IPO '04.