Google plans $4 billion-plus share sale

GDO Report

Google Inc., the Internet search engine that went public a year ago, on Thursday said that it's looking to sell more than 14 million additional shares in a secondary offering and that it's considering acquisitions.

Shares of Google fell 3% to $276 in pre-market trades.

Google Inc. (GOOG: news, chart, profile) said in a Securities and Exchange Commission filing that it's selling 14.16 million of its Class A shares.

Based on a share price that closed Wednesday at $285.09, that would put the share sale's value at more than $4 billion.

Google has given underwriters the right to purchase up to an additional 600,000 shares to cover over-allotments.

Morgan Stanley, Credit Suisse First Boston and Allen & Co. are leading the underwriting.

Morgan Stanley staged the Dutch auction that Google used to go public, when it priced at $85 a share.

Marking its first anniversary as a publicly traded company, Google said it'll use the proceeds for general corporate purposes, including possibly acquisitions, though no agreements or commitments have been made for any material acquisitions.

The proceeds of $4.2 billion in the offering amount to about 5% of Google's $79.1billion market cap.

"The principal purpose of this offering is to obtain additional capital," Google (GOOG: news, chart, profile) said in the filing.

The money could go toward capital expenditures, acquisitions of complementary businesses, technologies, or other assets.

Pending such uses, Google said it plans to invest the net proceeds in "highly liquid, investment grade securities."

Google lists about $2.95 billion in cash on its balance sheet as of June 30.

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