How much is Google really worth? The company’s stock price hit a new high of $484 Monday before backtracking slightly late in the day to close at  $481. Notably, the company's market value briefly surpassed $150 billion. To put that in perspective, Google, which made its debut on the stock market merely two years ago, is now worth more than the combined worth of Disney ($65 billion) and Time Warner at ($80 billion), two beasts of the old media jungle.

Back when Google went public two years ago, at $85, the consensus was that this price was absurd. Who would have thought that two years later, Wall Street would euphorically be celebrating on Internet company for its moneymaking abilities and interesting moves into the digital media space, trading at almost $500. Most business school students like myself had a hard time wrapping our perfect DCF models and well calculated WACCs and terminal multiples around that.

Google’s impressive third-quarter performance underscored the substantial advantage that Google has built over qualified Internet rivals Yahoo! and MSN, leading most analysts to conclude that the company will continue to dominate the online advertising market, while it explores other potentially lucrative opportunities, such as Internet video with its YouTube acquisition last week.

However, one thing that is unlikely to change is the audiences’ appitite for content, whether information or entertainment. Google is still a minor player in creating original content.

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