Google Inc., the world's most popular Internet search engine, offered up to 4.2 billion dollars in stock Thursday, cashing in on its surging share price since an initial public offering a year ago, dpa reported. Some proceeds from the sale of 14.8 million shares may be used to buy other businesses, Google said in a statement to U.S. regulators. Its shares fell nearly 2 per cent to 279.60 dollars. Google, launched in 1998 by two Stanford University students, noted that it faces "formidable competition", notably from Microsoft and Yahoo! search engines. The company generates the vast majority of its profits by selling advertising displayed with the results of each search. It said it plans to use money from the offering for "general corporate purposes." In addition, the company said "we may use proceeds of this offering for acquisitions of complementary businesses, technologies or other assets. We have no current agreements or commitments with respect to any material acquisitions." Until it figures out what to spend the money on, Google said it would place the proceeds in "highly liquid, investment-grade securities." Google's share price has more than tripled since its stock market Debut last summer, but recent worries that the Mountain View, California-based company's growth rate might slow have dampened the rally.
