Google resellers look for boost from IPO

Cleveland businessman David Goebel, who resells Google's search technology, thinks the initial public stock offering of the popular Internet search engine will give his company a big boost.

Tim Needles, founder and CEO of Onix Networking Group of Westlake, which also resells the Google technology, is more cautious, saying it's too early to tell what the effect will be.

Goebel Group Inc. of Cleveland and Onix Networking are among the companies authorized to sell leases of the Google Search Appliance. Customers lease the appliance, a Linux computer loaded with Google software, to make it easy for their employees to find documents on internal computer networks such as intranets.

Google filed plans on April 29 for an IPO that the company hopes will raise $2.7 billion. Mr. Goebel, who founded the three-employee Goebel Group in spring 2002, said he expects Google to use some of the IPO cash to invest more money in its reseller channel. Google receives 95% of its revenues from advertising, so it's logical for Google to seek to expand revenues with bigger sales of its Google Search Appliance, he said.

Goebel charges $32,000 to $350,000 for a two-year lease of the search appliance; the price varies depending upon how many computers and documents are accessed.

Mr. Goebel said he knows of only five Google Search Appliance resellers nationwide. Google won't confirm that number because the company considers it proprietary information.

One of the Goebel Group's customers is Huntington National Bank, which installed the Google Search Appliance about a year ago on the company's internal web site, said Barry Salmons, a Huntington vice president and intranet manager. Before then, "We didn't have a search solution," he said.

While Mr. Goebel's company focuses entirely on Google's technology, selling the Google Search Appliance is only a part of the business at the 19-employee Onix Networking, an IT provider that emphasizes systems integration. Reselling the search appliance is a "substantial" part of Onix's business, Mr. Needles said, though he declined to give a percentage.

Mr. Needles said it's premature to say whether Google's IPO will aid resellers. And while the new buzz for Google is nice, Mr. Needles said, Google didn't need much help because it's already one of the top brands in the world, "right up there with Coke and GE and Nike."