It's a three level system, see the article below for details. To summarize, there are now three classes of shares: A class - gets one vote per share, pretty much the same as the old GOOG stock only half the cost per share, B class - these are held only by upper Google management and not traded publicly, they have 10 votes per share, and C class - no voting rights, symbol is GOOG, these started at half the cost per share but are sinking lower since not having voting rights makes them less valuable.
My editorial opinion: I sold my Google stock prior to the split because I think this is a thinly disguised way to basically take control of the company away from regular stockholders and give it to three (yes, only 3) people in upper management. It smacks of arrogance, that these three guys will dictate the actions of one of the largest and most powerful companies in the world.
Google now as a 3 tier system for their stocks:
- A stocks (GOOGL)
- 1 vote per 1 stock owned
- B stocks (Not for sale)
- 2 votes per 1 stock owned
- C stocks (GOOG)
- No votes
Google did this so that the owners of the company could retain their power over it (as the new stock no longer gives the shareholder voting power).
Hold onto the GOOGL stock, currently its roughly equivalent to the GOOG stock, but over time it should become slightly more valuable due to the fact it has a vote attached to it.
Yesterday my Google stock split and I received shares of GOOGL, which I understand is interest, but why does this interest fluctuate daily with the market?
