Stanford, one of the country's richest universities, also stands to add considerably to its bottom line. Mr. Brin and Mr. Page, who met in 1995 at a party for incoming computer science graduate students, worked together on a university-funded data-mining project. During that collaboration, the pair invented the search technology that would eventually be Google's core technology.



"The university owns the technology," said Katharine Ku, the director of Stanford's Office of Technology Licensing. "We license it to Google, which back then was just these two kids. They pay Stanford royalties annually. We also took a bit of stock in the deal."



Under the terms of that deal, the royalties are evenly split three ways among Mr. Brin and Mr. Page, the computer science department and the university's engineering school. That deal was struck in 1996.



For two years, the university tried to license the deal to existing search companies; at least one company "offered a significant amount of money" to buy Google, but in 1998 "the two decided to start their own company."



Ms. Ku declined to share the terms of the licensing deal, which is still in effect, or to speculate on the potential value of the university's equity stake.