Back in 2004, Google’s 31-year-old cofounders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, were Silicon Valley darlings who graced the covers of Newsweek, Time, and of course, Fortune (not to mention an interview for Playboy). Their decision to take public their startup—whose motto at the time was "Don't Be Evil"—was one of the year's biggest tech and business stories.
The public offering, which took the form of an unconventional Dutch auction, came just six years after the cofounders created Google in their Stanford dorm rooms. Less than six months later, the company had turned into a “$2 billion growth machine,” then Fortune-staffer Fred Vogelstein wrote in a December 2004 cover story. Despite the stock trading at 65 times earnings, most investors remained bullish.
