Google Shares Fall As Its Lockup Expires; Insiders Can Sell More Stock; Investors keeping close eye as strength of search king's stock will face several tests.(INTERNET & TECHNOLOGY)

Publication: Investor's Business Daily

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COPYRIGHT 2004 Investor's Business Daily, Inc.

Byline: PETE BARLAS

Google's rocket ride on Wall Street sputtered a bit, and more such stages might be coming.

Shares of Google, the Web's leading search engine, fell 6.7% on Tuesday -- an important date because it was the first day insiders were permitted to sell 39 million shares.

The end of this lockup, a period after an initial public offering in which certain insiders can't sell their shares, more than doubled the company's float, the number of shares available for trading.

But several analysts called the decline modest. Google shares have had worse days. And Tuesday ranked as only the fifth highest trading volume day out of the 63 days Google has been traded.

Tuesday's selling was no surprise, says Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst for investment...

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