Google is getting ready for a stock split. The search giant has been expected to split their stock for quite some time, though nothing has come of it until now. In addition to the split, they will have three categories of stock for purchase. The lower-end pricing after the split is still expected to be well out of the reach of most of us, though.

The stock will now be split into three categories, with the third being the new listing. Here’s how it will shake out:

Class A stock: This is already traded on the market.

Class B stock: Employee stock, which has ten times the voting power of Class A stock.

Class C stock: New. Offered publicly, Class C has no voting power.

In splitting the stock, Google is effectively listing themselves twice on the stock exchange (Class A and C), which had some concerned the S&P 500 would drop one of them. In a surprise move, the S&P notes they’ll offer both Google stocks, which is a change to their policy of only having a company’s stock listed once on their index. Though there will still be 500 companies on the index, the S&P is choosing to list additional stock, potentially opening themselves up to other stock splits to those on their index.

Even with a split, the stock should still be right around $600 for both A and C. The split is designed to keep Larry and Sergey in control, which was the idea behind a different split years ago. By offering ten times the voting power, and holding a big portion of stock, the two can effectively run Google as they like. We think they’ve done a pretty amazing job so far.

Via: Market Watch