Since Google went public on Aug. 19, 2004, at $85 a share, its market value has grown nearly 500 percent to $156 billion. In comparison, Microsoft's value had not quite quadrupled on its third anniversary in March 1989.
But Google's precocious performance has come at a price: Antitrust regulators in the United States are probing its proposed $3.1 billion purchase of DoubleClick, an Internet advertising company, and European regulators are poised to follow suit.
It's a position that Google's top rival, Microsoft, knows all too well. Less than a decade ago, the same combination of colorless bureaucrats and colorful coders helped end the software giant's spectacular growth spurt, sending its stock into a seven-year slump.
Industry experts say there are cautionary lessons to be drawn in comparing the two companies.
"There's clearly a strong parallel on the antitrust front. You can draw a line from IBM through Microsoft to Google," said Tom Eisenmann, a Harvard Business School professor who has written a case study on Google.
But Eisenmann noted that Google's market share in Internet search -- about 50 percent in the United States -- is significantly less than the 70 percent share of the computer mainframe market that IBM enjoyed before regulators cracked down, or Microsoft's share of the personal-computer software market, which was more than 90 percent.
Approaching a tipping point?
Others say trouble appears to be brewing.
"Just as concerns about Microsoft gradually increased until they reached critical mass, I think that is starting to happen with Google," said Lauren Weinstein, co-founder of People for Internet Responsibility. "We are starting to approach a tipping point in all this, where the risks to Google are becoming greater and greater."
In Google's case, opponents in the United States and Europe are citing Microsoft's dominance of office applications to bolster their arguments. They contend that Google's acquisition of DoubleClick could help it dominate the rapidly growing market for Internet advertising, combining Google's leadership in search-related ads with DoubleClick's strength in display ads.
They also warn that the vast amount of data about people's behavior on the Internet held by the combined company could threaten consumer privacy.
In a statement to the San Jose Mercury News, Google said it is "confident that this acquisition poses no risk to competition and respects consumer privacy."
Despite widespread admiration of Google's success, tech publisher Tim O'Reilly said, there is growing animosity against the company, especially in Silicon Valley, where Google's growth has made it hard for other companies to compete for talented employees.
"They are powerful, they are arrogant, but I don't think they are winner-takes-all competitors in the way Microsoft was," he said.
"People got burned so badly by Microsoft, they are kind of overreacting."
