Founders' IPO Letter
From the S-1 Registration Statement
“An Owner’s Manual” for Google’s Shareholders1
Introduction
Google is not a conventional company. We do not intend to become one. Throughout Google’s evolution as a privately held
company, we have managed Google differently. We have also emphasized an atmosphere of creativity and challenge, which
has helped us provide unbiased, accurate and free access to information for those who rely on us around the world.
Now the time has come for the company to move to public ownership. This change will bring important benefits for our
employees, for our present and future shareholders, for our customers, and most of all for Google users. But the standard
structure of public ownership may jeopardize the independence and focused objectivity that have been most important in
Google’s past success and that we consider most fundamental for its future. Therefore, we have implemented a corporate
structure that is designed to protect Google’s ability to innovate and retain its most distinctive characteristics. We are
confident that, in the long run, this will benefit Google and its shareholders, old and new. We want to clearly explain our
plans and the reasoning and values behind them. We are delighted you are considering an investment in Google and are
reading this letter.
Sergey and I intend to write you a letter like this one every year in our annual report. We’ll take turns writing the letter so
you’ll hear directly from each of us. We ask that you read this letter in conjunction with the rest of this prospectus.
Serving end users
Sergey and I founded Google because we believed we could provide an important service to the world-instantly delivering
relevant information on virtually any topic. Serving our end users is at the heart of what we do and remains our number one
priority.
Our goal is to develop services that significantly improve the lives of as many people as possible. In pursuing this goal, we
may do things that we believe have a positive impact on the world, even if the near term financial returns are not obvious.
For example, we make our services as widely available as we can by supporting over 90 languages and by providing most
services for free. Advertising is our principal source of revenue, and the ads we provide are relevant and useful rather than
intrusive and annoying. We strive to provide users with great commercial information.
We are proud of the products we have built, and we hope that those we create in the future will have an even greater
positive impact on the world.
Long term focus
As a private company, we have concentrated on the long term, and this has served us well. As a public company, we will do
the same. In our opinion, outside pressures too often tempt companies to sacrifice long term opportunities to meet
quarterly market expectations. Sometimes this pressure has caused companies to manipulate financial results in order to
“make their quarter.” In Warren Buffett’s words, “We won’t ‘smooth’ quarterly or annual results: If earnings figures are lumpy
when they reach headquarters, they will be lumpy when they reach you.”
If opportunities arise that might cause us to sacrifice short term results but are in the best long term interest of our
shareholders, we will take those opportunities. We will have the fortitude to do this. We would request that our shareholders
take the long term view.
You might ask how long is long term? Usually we expect projects to have some realized benefit or progress within a year or
two. But, we are trying to look forward as far as we can. Despite the quickly changing business and technology landscape,
