Google on the way to the $200 boundary?

Google struggles to rebound to $300

(Source: By John Letzing, MarketWatch
Last update: 4:30 p.m. EDT March 9, 2009)
SAN FRANCISCO (MarketWatch) -- Shares of Google Inc. remained below the $300 mark Monday, as investors soured on the search giant in the wake of sobering comments made by its chief executive last week.
(GOOG 290.89, -17.68, -5.7%) stock dipped below $300 on Friday for the first time since late January, and closed Monday's session more than 5% lower at $290.89.
The shares' slide comes roughly a week after Chief Executive Eric Schmidt told an audience at a technology conference that he doesn't see the economy rebounding until 2010. In addition, analysts have issued increasingly negative outlooks for the online-advertising industry. See related story on Schmidt's comments..
Google has also taken the unusual step of allowing employees to exchange their stock options, a move that some analysts have criticized as short-changing outside investors.
On Friday, the company disclosed in a regulatory filing that it's allowing employees -- who may have seen their options become virtually worthless thanks to the falling stock price -- to acquire new options priced at $308.57.
Google has said it needs to implement the stock-option exchange to help retain top talent. However, the net effect is to potentially enable company insiders to profit from gains in Google's stock price in advance of investors who bought shares in the recent past.
The move also comes as Google, along with its peers, is facing increasingly difficult online-advertising conditions.
Last week, Thomas Weisel Partners analyst Christa Quarles lowered her estimates for Google's current fiscal year as well as for 2010, citing "sustained and perhaps increasing weakness in the online-advertising market."