The founders of the company still have a controlling stake in the business. External shareholders have little leverage.

Going public gave Google a lot of nearly-free money to grow, and it's how you've gotten both Gmail and Google+. But more importantly, it allowed them to offer much higher total comp packages by issuing more stock on the go. I think they're prisoners of the stock market only insofar that if the stock stops going up, they're gonna have a harder time hiring and retaining talent.

In a way, it's the employees holding the company hostage. They're simultaneously complaining about innocence lost and stating their implicit preference for this outcome by demanding top-of-the-line comp.

If you want to be paid the same as at Microsoft or Facebook, you become Microsoft or Facebook.

>Going public gave Google a lot of nearly-free money to grow, and it's how you've gotten both Gmail

Gmail launched in April 2004, and the company went public in August 2004, so what you said is not literally true.

> and Google+

Thanks for the chuckle.