Being a very young company with a non-corrected stock price (some may say 'irrational' due to the precipitous decline on the news of an MS/Yahoo merger), Google is at a point in its existence where pushing the envelope is not only par for the course, but it's expected. When a company has hordes and hordes of cash reserves, investing in Shuttles, Fire-Side chats, allocating office space to Prayer/Meditation rooms, etc., are good ways to build morale while unloading some cash as well (too much cash floating around on a balance sheet is not necessarily a good thing . . . )
The question I have is . . . When will the honeymoon period be over? When the stock price corrects and Google market cap normalizes, will investors be so keen on lavish spending under the premise of a "happy culture".
And here's the 'water-cooler' talk direct from the inside of the Google ranks: . . . Who owns the IP of these breakthrough ideas & innovations that Google so strongly pushes employees for on their 'free time' in the office?
The above being stated, I will say that Google is doing some really cool things and I imagine it's a lot of fun to be a part of it right now.
March 26, 2008 at 7:41pm
Joshua Letourneau