In what year did Google have its IPO?

Google had its IPO in 2004, becoming a publicly traded company on August 19 of that year.

The offering sold 19,605,052 shares at $85 each and raised about $1.67 billion. Google listed on Nasdaq, and its market capitalization exceeded $23 billion on the first day. The company used an unusual Dutch-auction-style process intended to broaden participation and reduce the influence of investment-bank clients in allocating shares.

Google was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, so 1998 is a common mix-up: it marks the company's founding, not its IPO. The 2005 and 2006 dates likewise refer to later years in Google's rapid expansion, including its 2006 acquisition of YouTube.

After the IPO, Google operated with a dual-class share structure that gave founders and insiders greater voting control. In 2015, Google became a subsidiary of Alphabet, but its 2004 IPO remains the key date for the original company going public.