In the final 4 years, Google stock has gone from about $300 per share to over $1,200 per share (prior to the split). It is a single of the few companies (in addition to Apple) that you can say really has their act collectively. Most of their revenue comes from their prime-rated search engine and Adwords, but they have their hand in other firms as properly. This is what tends to make them a robust company: They have a handful of companies that are all carrying out very properly so their earnings stream is steady and not reliant on a single or two merchandise like Apple stock may possibly be.

Shareholders of failed firms – Lehman, Bear Stearns, AIG, and so forth. – actually took it on the chin, nevertheless. As for all the arguments about money vs. stock compensation, the aggregate employee ownership of stock at Lehman and Bear …