Google seeks OK to sell shares

Google has signaled that its share auction is nearly complete, asking the Securities and Exchange Commission for approval to begin selling 25.7 million shares of stock starting late this afternoon.



Venture capitalists and Google watchers said yesterday's request, coming on the first business day after the bidding opened, suggested the Web search provider's much-anticipated auction already may be oversubscribed at a price in the target range of $108 to $130 a share. That would fetch Google between $2.8 billion and $3.3 billion, the biggest initial public offering ever for an Internet company.