[quote]
…[ul][li]Profits up more than fivefold to $369.2 million for the quarter and sales nearly doubling to $1.26 billion - came from surging Internet advertising[]The company’s (IPO) sold…at $85…(has) surg(ed) to $224[]Google’s stock price pushed the company’s market value to $60 billion[](A market value that exceeds) Viacom…Disney…General Motors, Ford (or) Hewlett-Packard[]“Google shares are worth $275 to $290 each”, (says) Goldman Sachs analyst Anthony Noto[]Net advertising “is probably about 3 or 4 percent of worldwide spending but growing very rapidly,” WPP Group chief executive Martin Sorrell said…[]Google’s quarterly sales eclipsed the combined revenue of The New York Times, the third-largest U.S. newspaper company, and Dow Jones, publisher of The Wall Street Journal…[/ul][/li][/quote]
Macro: Can this be a repeat of the 90’s tech boom?
Micro: Can a company with few (if any) hard/tangeble assets really have a comparable market value to a auto manufacturer or entertainment company? Especially in such a new market ('net advertizing).
Is there anything proprietary about Google’s service?
What is different about today’s Google and yesterday’s near-extinct ‘tech giants’?
Even with projected earning forcasts, Google’s price to earnings ratio is +/-42…at what point do analysts say that’s too high?
Are these pie in the sky forecasts nothing more than short-term, make it while it’s hot speculative guesses?