Brian Reid, a former operations manager at Google Inc., last week filed a lawsuit against the search engine giant, alleging the company’s culture discriminates against older workers.

The lawsuit, filed in Santa Clara Superior court, alleges Google fired Reid in February 2004 because he didn’t fit in a culture emphasizing “youth and energy,” The Associated Press reported.

Google denied the allegations.

Reid was paid an annual salary of $200,000 and had 119,000 Google stock options with an exercise price of 30 cents per share, the AP reported. The firing cost him his salary and his stock options.

Today, Google set a price range of $108 to $135 a share in its highly anticipated initial public stock offering. After the Google IPO, Reid’s stock would have been worth about $10 million.

The lawsuit seeks to recover lost compensation and punitive damages.

(via The Associated Press)