Major retraction and apologies folks… I just got off the phone with Google’s Communications Director, David Krane. It seems that the rumours of Google’s pending IPO have been greatly exaggerated by hundreds of writers, including myself, who are following Google. The story, which first broke in the Wall Street Journal Digest last Friday, has developed long legs and has been reported in most major business journals around the world. After reading literally dozens of articles and analysis, we decided to run with it too. Sometimes running with what appears to be the real story can be like running with scissors, a rather dangerous thing to do. It would seem I stumbled.

Here’s the story as we see it today. Google has NOT made a formal announcement regarding the issuance of an IPO. I made a foolish mistake in reporting this based on articles from several sources, all of which named “unnamed sources” as their informants. Google has been in talks with several investment banks, several of which are jockeying for position on floating the IPO. This was reported in Tuesday’s Oakland Tribune and Seattle Post-Intelligencer, to name a few. When issued, it will likely be in the $15-25Billion range, as reported here and in most other publications.

I believe the analysis in my article to be, for the most part accurate, assuming Google does issue their long-expected IPO. Several people I’ve spoken with today still believe that a formal announcement is imminent however; Google’s communications department has refused comment on the issue.