So if you think your portfolio has problems, consider the plight of the Google guys and what they've been suffering since shares hit that high of $747 in early November. This has been a rough few months for legions of Google shareholders, but particularly hard on company co-founders Larry and Sergey.
As of the last significant filing about all this, Sergey Brin held 28,642,862 shares, which, at their high, were worth $21,396,217,914; Larry Page owned 29,163,614 shares worth $21,785,219,658.
Today, using $468 as the share price, Sergey's position is worth $13,404,859,416 for a total loss of nearly $8 billion! Larry's position is worth $13,648,571,352, racking up losses north of $8 billion!
Ouch.
I mean, it must be nice to have $8 billion to lose in the first place. Nicer still if after losing $8 billion you've still got $13 billion left over. But still, $8 billion is $8 billion! And sheesh, all this tragedy and Larry is a newly-wed! What must she be thinking?
Looking over the Forbes 400 list of richest Americans, Larry and Sergey have tumbled, from a tie for 5th place all the way down to 23rd. What's amazing is over the last three months, they've each lost the total wealth of all but 40 people on the list. Their total losses measure up to Paul Allen's $16.8 billion in individual self-worth.
CEO Eric Schmidt is also feeling the hurt: his 10.7 million shares were worth just shy of $8 billion on Nov. 7, 2007. Today, only $5 billion, for a net loss just under $3 billion. He slid to 63rd from 40th on the Forbes list, by the way.
These are staggering losses in an incredibly short period of time. Oh, and remember the Google masseuse we profiled? The company's first masseuse who cashed out and is now an author? Her name is Bonnie Brown and she's been making the rounds as one of the Google millionaires who left the company to live her dream and spend and invest her money? We reached her this morning and she says that while she's sold some of her Google shares (to live her life of leisure) she still holds a big chunk of her original position. She tells us she remains undaunted, that "the stock goes up, the stock goes down," but she will continue to hold onto it.
Not sure if any of this makes you feel better, but in this misery-loves-company kind of world, I'd thought I'd let you know you're not alone.