The details are out: AOL owns warrants to exercise 1.9 million or so shares of Google at a price of $22 million. A quick calculation says that’s a price of roughly $11.50 a share. This is due to a deal the two companies struck as part of their 2002 partnership. It came to light in Time Warner’s recent 10-K filing.
So…if Google goes all Priceline on its opening day and stays there (there’s probably a lock up on selling), that stock just might be worth ten times that amount, or more than $200 million. About as much as AOL is spending on marketing this year….
Note: Yahoo also owns shares – a lot more – in Google.
All hail Gary for the 10-K URL.