Summery Google plans to establish outpost at CMU

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/05349/622655.stm

Internet goliath Google Inc. will open a research and development  
facility on Carnegie Mellon University's campus, state economic  
development and university officials are expected to announce today.

...Google, based in Menlo Park, Calif., is setting up a local shop  
because it, like a handful of other Silicon Valley firms, wants to be  
close to CMU and the research talent at its engineering and computer  
sciences schools, considered among the tops in the country.

...Its online search capabilities rapidly became so pervasive that  
people would say they are going to "Google" someone or something when  
looking up information on the Internet.

...The firm's market value has soared above $100 billion -- eclipsing  
a long list of business icons -- Coca Cola Co., Pepsico Inc., Time  
Warner Inc., Hewlett-Packard Co.

...When the company first went public, skeptics believed fierce  
competition from formidable rivals such as Microsoft and Yahoo Inc.  
would erode the company's search engine leadership and, ultimately,  
retard its earnings growth.

...Through October, Google held a 39 percent share of the U.S. market  
for online search, up from 34.8 percent at the same time last year,  
according to comScore Networks.  Yahoo's share has meanwhile declined  
to 29.2 percent from 32 percent a year ago and Microsoft's has  
decreased to 14.6 percent from 15.8 percent last year, comScore said.

...As Google has introduced more intriguing products to complement  
its search engine, prominent securities analysts such as Benjamin  
Schachter of UBS Securities and Safa Rashtchy of Piper Jaffray have  
become convinced the company is bound to become an indispensable hub  
in a global economy increasingly driven by the Internet.

...Their meteoric rise has evoked memories of the emergence of  
another high-tech star in the 1980s -- Microsoft Corp., which 16  
months after going public, traded at a split-adjusted 30 cents per  
share -- more than quadrupling from the March 1986 IPO price of 7 cents.

...For one, Microsoft's market value remained below $10 billion 16  
months after its IPO, leaving plenty of upside for investors.

...The impressive earnings growth distinguishes Google from the  
throng of unprofitable dot.coms with stocks that soared during 1999  
and 2000, only to crash after investors concluded the valuations were  
based on goofy math.

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