The Google IPO Deal Toy: Celebrating the 20th Anniversary

Google’s Iconic Lava Lamps and the Landmark Tombstone

August hasn’t traditionally been the most laid-back time of year for Google. In 2015, co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin chose the month to announce a corporate restructuring, and the formation of a new parent company, Alphabet. And on August 19th, 20 years ago, Google staged its landmark intiial public offering.

In honor of that milestone, we’re reposting this tribute to the 10th anniversary of the IPO—and the deal toy that commemorated it. Some of the numbers quoted then will seem laughably dated. Alphabet, for instance, now has a workforce totaling more than 180,000. Its market capitalization now exceeds two trillion.

The deal toy design, on the other hand, seems to have held up pretty well.

“I wouldn’t be buying Google stock, and I don’t know anyone who would”.

In the ten years today since Silicon Valley futurist Jerry Kaplan offered this assessment of the Google IPO’s prospects, the lava lamp—the celebrated Googleplex trapping that inspired the IPO deal toy design—commemorated its 50^th anniversary.

And in other news, Google stock during that same period increased more than 1000% on an adjusted basis; the company also achieved a market capitalization of approximately $180 billion…and its staff grew by a factor of 20—to more than 50,000 employees.

Even if we may have missed out on the IPO as an investment opportunity, those of us at The Corporate Presence can at least take comfort in being in on the deal toy.

Like massage chairs and pool tables, lava lamps are a key component of the Googleplex ambience, and have dotted the company’s lobbies almost from its inception. Creating and manufacturing a deal toy that not only commemorated a landmark issue—but did so in a way that resonated with Google employees—remain especially satisfying for us, even ten years later.

The Google IPO also gave us valuable experience we later put to use in commemorating other landmark deals in the tech sector—including both the Deal Toy for Facebook’s IPO as well as the Twitter IPO Deal Toy.

We want to congratulate both the lead underwriters of the issue, and especially Google and its employees.

David Parry is the Director of Digital Strategy for The Corporate Presence, and for Prestige Custom Awards, a designer and provider of custom corporate awards ranging from creative employee and client recognition pieces to the N.F.L. Commissioner’s Awards, and ESPN’s ESPY awards.

Related:
Twitter Adds Another Deal Toy to its Timeline
Featured Deal Toy: The Facebook IPO
The Lucite That Marks The “Most Profitable Deal in History”