Today in 2004, Google raised $1.67 billion in its initial public offering.
Google’s shares were sold in a public auction intended to put the average investor on an equal footing with financial industry professionals. The shares were priced at $85, at the low end of expectations, valuing the company at $23 billion.
The Wall Street Journal reported that "A combination of Google's own hubris, stubborn investors and a deteriorated technology market transformed what was billed as the hottest IPO of this short century into a rather messy affair." But Google’s offering still amounted “to by far the largest Internet IPO ever.”
On January 16, 2020, Google reached $1 trillion in value for the first time. The New York Times:
[Google] is essentially the sole proprietor of the internet’s most lucrative business. Google search is the on-ramp to much of the internet, and placing advertising next to key search terms is a necessity for most businesses, who risk forgoing traffic to a competitor.
The company marches upward in market value as it continues hauling in $137 billion (and growing) in annual revenue, much of it from its healthy digital advertising business.