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Do You want to be the next Google millionaire?

Call it Googlemania. Seems like it's impossible these days to read the financial section of a newspaper or magazine or surf the Net without getting a dose of speculation about Google's supposedly imminent public offering.

In fact, if you "Google" Google IPO, you'll get upwards of 253,000 hits. There's even one Web site -- Google IPO Central -- devoted solely to news (and I use the word loosely) about the upcoming IPO

And the hyperbole: It's the most important IPO in history! It's going to revitalize the tech market! It's going to rejuvenate the stock market! It's going to re-cast the landscape of American presidential politics! (Okay, I made up that last one, but you get the idea.)

How Can I Get in?

The answer to the first question depends on how Google pulls off the offering.

Traditionally, investment bankers set an offering price for IPO shares and then allocate them to brokerage firms, which in turn dole them out to their best customers. In the past, some of these shares have also been given to heads of large companies as -- choose your word: incentives, bribes, kickbacks -- for the implicit promise of future business.

Under this system, the people who get shares at the offering price often make a big killing because IPOs, especially eagerly awaited ones, frequently go for much more than the offering price (initially at least) once trading begins.

The rub for small investors is that they rarely get shares at the offering price -- they buy at the higher market price, providing a profit to the big shots.

There's also a rub for the companies going public -- money that might have gone to the company has effectively been transferred to lucky people who got the IPO at what amounts to a below-market IPO offering price.

There has been talk that Google may forego this traditional IPO route in favor of a Dutch auction. In this rare system, the investment bank offers shares at a very high price and continuously lowers it, taking bids at various prices along the way.

All bidders end up paying the price at which the last shares are sold.

So, for example, if the first few bidders agreed to a prices ranging between, say, $20 and $18 per share, but the bid for the final shares came in at, say, $15, everyone would pay $15.

So why not just wait until the price drops to a very low level? Simple. If you wait too long, the shares may sell out and you're left with nothing.

All bidders end up paying the price at which the last shares are sold.

So, for example, if the first few bidders agreed to a prices ranging between, say, $20 and $18 per share, but the bid for the final shares came in at, say, $15, everyone would pay $15.

So why not just wait until the price drops to a very low level? Simple. If you wait too long, the shares may sell out and you're left with nothing.

I think this method has the possibility of opening up the process to more investors. Of course, Google hasn't consulted me on this, so I have no idea whether the company will go the Dutch auction or traditional route.

Read Full Artilce with Figures @ Ask the Expert: Navigating Googlemania - Apr. 26, 2004

R u waiting for this IPO and are you going to invest in it? I guess being a geek, I will take a plunge into this.