Acknowledging that demand for its controversial stock sale was weaker than it thought,{{U}} (8) {{/U}}.

The popular Internet search engine e-mailed investors registered to bid on its shares that it priced the initial public offering at $85 a share. That was the low end of the new expected range, which was already reduced from $135.

Also, {{U}}(9) {{/U}}, and several big shareholders said they would not sell anything in the IPO.

The upshot, rather than raising $3.1 billion in what would have been the 13th biggest initial public offering, the sale would raise just $1.7 billion—{{U}} (10) {{/U}}.

Under the symbol GOOG, Google is expected to begin trading on the Nasdaq Thursday.

Co-founders Sergey Brin and Larry Page, who would have been worth $4.6 billion midway in the original IPO range, saw the value of their post-sale stakes shrink to $3.2 billion. Still, {{U}}(11) {{/U}}.

A series of missteps by Google and renewed turmoil in tech stocks proved a powerful problem for what has been billed as the most anticipated IPO since the tech bubble burst. "Google has stumbled badly out of the gate, even before it was out of the gate," says David Garrity of research firm Caris & Co.

Late Wednesday, the Securities and Exchange Commission granted Google's request to certify the IPO, after delaying the offering 24 hours. Separately, Google said the SEC was investigating whether its co-founders had violated "quiet period" rules. Soon after the SEC decision, {{U}}(12) {{/U}}.

Despite the blemishes, the IPO is another big accomplishment for the company. Started less than six years ago, Google has thrived letting consumers search the Internet for free while it charges advertisers for putting links on its Web site.
A. that would rank them near 50th on the Forbes richest Americans list
B. Google's two founders cut in half the number of shares they expected to sell as part of the offering
C. Google on Wednesday slashed the price and size of its much-hyped IPO
D. which would rank Google in the top 5 IPOs
E. Google closed the unusual auction for its shares and notified winning bidders
F. Google began to sell its shares at the price of $105 a share
G. which would not even rank it in the top 25 IPOs
H. Google decided to size down its number of employees