The sale of Google shares will make some people very, very rich

The move is likely to have been needed to revive interest as stock exchanges around the world come under pressure.

The new range is $85-95 a share - a reduction of about a quarter from the previous level of $108-135, which valued the company at $36bn (�19bn).

With the rewards set to be less, Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin are selling a smaller part of their stake.

Other executives have also decided to hold on to more of their stocks and the total number of shares on offer has dropped to 19.6 million from an initial 25.7 million.

That will cut the market value of Google to about $26bn and generate just $1.9bn instead of the previously forecast $3.6bn.

"They recognised that there wasn't the appetite for shares," said Hilary Cook, an analyst at Barclays stockbrokers in London.

Hiccups

The planned flotation, watched with keen interest around the globe, already has encountered some problems.

It has been delayed for at least a day as paperwork required for its shares to be sold has yet to be approved by regulators.

The Google Philosophy Never settle for the best Focus on the user and all else will follow It's best to do one thing really, really well Fast is better than slow Democracy on the web works You don't need to be at your desk to need an answer You can make money without doing evil There's always more information out there The need for information crosses all borders You can be serious without a suit Great just isn't good enough Source: Google website

Google hopes to get the go ahead and close the auction at 2000 GMT on Wednesday.

The Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) gave no reason for the previous day's delay to the IPO.

Once the SEC gives its approval, Google will stop accepting bids for its shares and could start issuing stock within a matter of hours.

The lower price, however, means the number of shares being sold also has been cut.

According to a statement on its website, Google said that "selling shareholders" would now offer 5.5 million stocks, less than half the amount they first planned to offload.

Among those offloading a portion of their stock are Google founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin, a number of other company executives and the venture capital firms which helped fund the company's expansion.

'Dutch auction'

The SEC approval will mean the "Dutch auction" under way to set the price of the Google shares will come to an end.

The auction is designed to give small investors a better chance of getting their hands on the shares that have been made available.

Potential buyers are asked to specify both the price they are willing to pay, and the number of shares they want.

The bids are placed in order, starting with those offering the highest price. The allocators work down the list from the top, allotting each bid in turn the shares it requests, until all the shares available have been accounted for.

The lowest successful bid then becomes the issue price, and the flotation can begin.

Google will trade on the technology-heavy Nasdaq exchange.

Investigation

The company prides itself on a smart, hard-grafting workforce

The company does, however, have a couple of clouds on its horizon.

Google revealed on Monday that the US stock market watchdog had launched an informal inquiry into its failure to register shares given to employees.

The probe centres on a possible breach of US stock market rules arising from the firm's failure to register 23 million shares and 5.6 million share options it offered to employees and consultants.

The company may face fines if the SEC finds that the share issue was contrary to stock market regulations.

Google has offered to buy back the shares, but at a lower price than they are expected to reach when traded on the stock market.