Search engine company Google says it plans to go public by selling $2.7 billion in stock through a novel online auction in the most-anticipated Internet flotation since Netscape in 1995.
The planned initial public offering promised to enrich the founders and early backers of the unconventional six-year-old company, which posted revenue of almost $1 billion last year.
It also set the stage for a new round of competition for Internet advertising dollars between Google and rivals Microsoft and Yahoo.
In keeping with Google's quirky culture, co-founders Mr Sergey Brin and Mr Larry Page promised in an "owners manual" for prospective investors that its debut as a public company would not change its culture. In doing so, they repeated the company mantra: "Don't Be Evil."
"Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one," they said, noting that investors could be in for a bumpy ride because they have no intention of smoothing results to match Wall Street expectations and would continue to invest in high-risk, high reward projects.
Google did not provide details on the pricing or expected listing date for its shares but said they would be sold through an auction designed to even the playing field for smaller investors and "minimise" the "boom-bust cycles" that have characterised other IPOs.
The listing by Google, which survived and prospered through the dot-com shakeout along with companies such as Yahoo and eBay, has been seen as a positive sign for venture capital investors and the IPO market, now recovering from a slump of more than three years.
Google said it would seek to list either on the Nasdaq Stock Market market or on the New York Stock Exchange.
Morgan Stanley and Credit Suisse First Boston were named as lead underwriters for the offering, which has been expected to generate fees of up $100 million for investment bankers.
Analysts have said the deal could value Google at $20 billion, compared with $36 billion for Yahoo and $285 billion for Microsoft.
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