Google Shares Break $500 Mark for 1st Time

Google, the Web search behemoth, on Tuesday saw its stock price top the $500 mark for the first time since the company launched eight years ago, boosting it into the ranks of the business world’s elite enterprises, the Associated Press reports via the Plainview Daily Herald.

In afternoon trading Tuesday on the Nasdaq, Google shares jumped 2.3 percent, or $11.38, to $506.43, according to the AP.

The latest increase in share price gives Google an approximate market value of $155 billion, making it Silicon Valley’s second most valuable firm behind Cisco Systems, which is worth about $164 billion, the AP reports.

Stanford University graduates Sergey Brin and Larry Page first launched the company out of a garage they rented in Menlo Park, Calif. The firm recently purchased that garage—and its accompanying home—from a Google employee for an undisclosed sum.

The latest increase in stock price is largely attributed to high Wall Street expectations, the potential of the company’s recent $1.65 billion stock acquisition of popular video-sharing site YouTube, and the upcoming holiday season, which will likely see Google profit handsomely for related Web traffic referrals, according to the AP.

Related Links:

• Google Buys Calif. Garage in Which It Was Born

• Google to Pick Up YouTube in $1.65B Stock Deal

Check out our CIO News Alerts and Tech Informer pages for more updated news coverage.