In 1998, O Neal bought Google s original shares by 1 million. How much is it worth selling now?

In the VIP lounge at Los Angeles International Airport, a giant 2.16 meters tall is reading the Wall Street Journal intently. This screen was frozen on November 19, 2004, with only 72 hours left before Google officially landed on Nasdaq. Shaquille O'Neal put down the newspaper, took out his mobile phone and dialed the finance department. I need to confirm the equity after Google's IPO. This scene that seems to be inconsistent with professional athletes has become one of the smartest decisions in O'Neal's career. While people were still marveling at his violent aesthetic on the court, the NBA legendary center had already built his own empire on the business map. In the spring of 1998, a 9-year-old boy playing with a Rubik's Cube caught O'Neal's attention in the lobby of the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, Los Angeles. This seemingly ordinary encounter actually contains the code to change the trajectory of wealth. The identity of the boy's father, Sergey Brin, was not revealed until the third time they met in a hotel pool - when the Dr. Stanford was looking for an angel investor for the newly founded Google Inc.

is an age full of uncertainty. Neal was interviewed by CNBC in 2021. But the search algorithm demonstrated by Bolling reminds me of the tactical board on the basketball court - a star with a simple, efficient, and an annual salary of tens of millions of dollars was decided to invest $1 million on the spot. This figure happened to be his two-week salary income at that time.

Behind this investment is precise business calculations. O'Neal's financial team once made detailed calculations: the average survival cycle of American Internet companies in 1998 was 18 months, but the patent barriers of search engine technology and the Stanford background team formed a double insurance. More importantly, O'Neal asked for Class A shares with priority liquidation rights, which was a rare clause in startup financing at the time.

When Google went public at $85 per share in 2004, O'Neal's original investment had increased to about $230 million. But what truly reflects its investment wisdom is the equity management strategy in the next twenty years. He rejected all early cash-out suggestions and instead increased his holdings through the secondary market during the 2008 financial crisis. As of the third quarter of 2023, its Google shares held exceeded US$720 million, with an annualized yield of an astonishing 39.8%.

This successful investment is by no means accidental. O'Neal's business territory is built according to a clear logic: a trinity model of core technology assets + cash flow business + brand premium. In addition to Google, he has successively deployed 155 chain catering, 17 commercial real estate, and even owned his own satellite communications company. This combination of punching style has made him ranked third on the active athlete wealth list with a net worth of $1.1 billion on the 2023 Forbes Rich List.

Boston Consulting Group analyst Mark Thompson pointed out that Neil's investment strategy has disrupted the wealth management model of professional athletes. He is well aware of the way of risk diversification. Technology stocks account for 42% of total assets, real estate 31%, cash assets are controlled within 10%, allocated twice in the Internet bubble in 2000 and the subprime mortgage crisis in 2008, and the annualized volatility has always been controlled below 12%.

On the ESPN documentary, O'Neal showed off his investment notebook. Records on March 15, 1999 show that he compared the traffic growth curves of Yahoo and Google in detail, and marked the technical parameters of the loading speed of 0.28 with a red pen. This almost paranoid spirit of study made him reject all additional investment invitations from .com companies before the Internet winter in 2000. Nowadays, when young players consult investment advice, O'Neal always takes out the yellowed copy of Google's equity certificate. He is used to using basketball to judge the angle of the ball and stuck the best position, and then - most importantly - he will never easily get rid of long-term philosophy after catching the ball. Perhaps it is the ultimate password for him to stand firm from the court to the business world.