Internet superstar company Google says it could value the company at $36 billion when its highly anticipated initial public offer (IPO) expected next month.
The valuation has been met with some scepticism by analysts aware of the many overvalued web-based companies during the tech boom of the late nineties.
In a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, Google estimated it would sell its shares for between $108 and $135 through online auction.
The price range would mean the IPO could raise as much as $3.3 billion. It would also value the California-based company higher than its closest rival, Yahoo! and mark its emergence as a public company larger than old-economy stalwarts such as Ford Motors and McDonald's.
At the projected pricing, Google would rank as the eighth-largest IPO by a US company, according to Thomson Financial. It would also be the highest-priced offering on a per-share basis since Genentech's July 1999 IPO.
One of the most eagerly awaited public offerings in years, Google has become one of the world's leading brands, its search engine so ubiquitous that its name has become a verb for looking up information.
But Google's size and the hype surrounding its listing could set it up for a fall if it disappoints investors as a publicly traded company, analysts have cautioned.
The company faces a number of risks, highlighted yesterday by the outbreak of a computer worm that made Google's search engine periodically unavailable worldwide.
Google also depends on advertising for its revenue. Even as a public company, it will also remain under the control of its founders, a prospect that has limited the enthusiasm of some fund managers