The major shareholders of Google remain inside Google, especially when you consider voting shares.
http://finance.yahoo.com/q/mh?s=GOOG+Major+Holders
This also underscores the fact that this is not Page's company and so while the Street's short-term thinking shouldn't influence him, he should provide shareholders a cogent articulation of his plan/vision.
I'm not saying that cutting costs, trying to not pay the taxes and massage of investors is stupid and worthless. What I'm trying to say is that Entrepreneurs start out to build companies that do stuff. But sometimes they just get so much into intricacies of "little stuff that matters" that they forget the big picture.
So for each action (or at least each major action) an executive should ask himself, how does this make this company better at being a company that does stuff people want. And cliche answer - it will help it because shareholders will get more out of it in short term is one of the worst.
So can you please explain to me how lower stock price affects google's ability to do what it does?
As far as staff goes - Google is well beyond the point where the stock options are the motivation for staff. Google's stock won't grow 100-1000x in next 10 years. It's impossible. Also working for Google today is not a risky activity anymore.
Today one would join Google: a) To experience the googly world and to leverage that experience in the future. b) To work with some of the best and brightest in the world and to use this experience as litmus benchmark for himself. c) To earn a competitive salary without much risk. d) To work on some project that the rest of the world is not aware of or deems to risky of an enterprise. e) To see how Larry & co. organized this miracle and to learn from it.
Google ain't the company it was anymore. It also never was anything like other "like" companies - Larry and Sergey made sure of it. And Larry & Sergey would IMHO rather run it into the ground than to make it another corporate monster like any other.
The pundits of course want to sell the story how Google will magically rise for 30% a year for some arcane reasons. What Larry did was refuse them alibi for such course of events. And this drop in stock price - I attribute to sell off from short term funds that were looking to cash in on Larry's take over - however they didn't analyze it enough to see what is coming.
Also regarding Google's opportunities. Google cannot grow on adsense anymore. If it wants to become an industry figure like IBM it will need to diversify (and that is exactly what it's doing for some time now). Google is not a marketing company. Or at least it doesn't want to be one. It wants to be a tech company - thats why it is betting massive stakes on green energy, robotic cars, artificial intelligence, etc...
Google's intentions seem clear to me - it is trying to become a GE, Bosch or Siemens of 21st century - and focus on quarterly results is not a way to go about it.
Again, this doesn't mean Google should engage in short-term B.S. that Wall St trades in, but they will need to be accountable to shareholders in some fashion - probably through detailing their vision. And they can articulate that they're managing for the long-term which is a great and desirable thing. But just saying "give us money, we're really smart" is not going to cut it. That's part of the hassle of being a public company - you are answerable to others.
Emotional arguments about why MBA/finance guys are bad may get folks excited but the reality is that both parties need each other. Thinking they don't is myopic, naive or probably both.
Entrepreneurs should treat finance as a tool not become a tool for the finance. What I mean is that sometimes you need to tell your accountant: Yes, what you propose makes sense from financial perspective - but it might severely cripple our vision and diminish our ability to reach our long term goals.
Nowadays to many treat finance as religion. And they don't even take a dump without their accountant.
"Larry and Sergey currently hold approximately 57.7 million shares of Class B common stock, which represents approximately 18% of Google’s outstanding capital stock and approximately 59% of the voting power of Google’s outstanding capital stock. Under the terms of these Rule 10b5-1 trading plans, and as a part of a five year diversification plan, Larry and Sergey each intend to sell approximately 5 million shares. If Larry and Sergey complete all the planned sales under these Rule 10b5-1 trading plans, they would continue to collectively own approximately 47.7 million shares, which would represent approximately 15% of Google’s outstanding capital stock and approximately 48% of the voting power of Google’s outstanding capital stock (assuming no other sales and conversions of Google capital stock occur)."
I have no opinion on Larry's actions on the call the other day. However, it is a fact that he, Sergey, and Eric, plus Marissa, Paul, and the rest of the insiders, still firmly control Google.