Google shares hit $700 mark

1st November 2007

Increasing by $100 (£48) in under a month, Google share prices have soared to over $700.

The leading search engine's shares gained $12.23 - 1.76 per cent - to close at $707 on Wednesday.

Shares reached $600 at the beginning of October and have increased by over 50 per cent this year so far.

According to the Associated Press, Google has created $55 billion in shareholder wealth in the six-and-a-half weeks since mid-September alone. The total market value of the company is $220 billion. In comparison, Yahoo!, which began four years before Google, is worth $42 billion.

"One of the reasons that Google has been a success story is not only because it has taken market share from its competitors, but also to some extent it has created new opportunities and new markets," Scott Kessler, an analyst at Standard & Poor, told Bloomberg.

Data measurement company comScore reported that Google performed 61 per cent of all global searches during August. Rivals Yahoo! and Microsoft performed 14 per cent and four per cent respectively.