SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Google on Thursday reported that its profit fell about 20 percent in the third quarter of 2012, which disappointed investors and sent the company's stock down.
Google's net income in the quarter was 2.18 billion U.S. dollars, compared to 2.73 billion dollars in the same period a year earlier.
The Internet search giant posted consolidated revenue of 14.1 billion dollars, an increase of 45 percent year over year.
Excluding items, it earned 9.03 dollars per share, down from 9. 72 dollars in the year-ago quarter. Excluding traffic acquisition costs paid to partners that direct traffic to Google's websites, revenue was 11.33 billion dollars.
The two adjusted numbers missed estimates by analysts, who according to a survey by Thomson Reuters, expected the company to report earnings excluding items of 10.65 dollars per share on net revenue of 11.86 billion dollars.
Google was scheduled to officially issue its earnings report after the closing bell, but the results were published hours earlier via a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission.
The company asked a halt of the trading of its stock, blaming its financial printer for the early release without authorization. The stock then resumed trading and closed down 8 percent.
"We had a strong quarter. Revenue was up 45 percent year-on- year, and, at just fourteen years old, we cleared our first 14 billion dollars revenue quarter," Larry Page, Google's chief executive officer, said in a statement.
"I am also really excited about the progress we're making creating a beautifully simple, intuitive Google experience across all devices," he added.
However, the latest quarterly results showed the challenges faced by Google as the Internet is becoming increasingly mobile.
Google's results were weighed down by the Motorola Mobility unit, a 12.5 billion-dollar purchase it closed in May as part of Google's push into mobile hardware business.
The Motorola unit posted operating loss of 527 million dollars in the quarter, Google said.
The company also reported a 15 percent year-over-year drop in cost per click (CPC), a measurement of the average price advertisers paid Google.
The reason that the CPC is continuing to drop is because mobile is taking over the web, some analysts said.
Advertisers are not willing to pay as much for mobile ads because they are not as effective as ads on desktop computers, Colin Gillis, an analyst at BCG, said in an interview with the CNBC business news channel.
NEW YORK, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- U.S. stocks closed lower on Thursday with the tech-savvy NASDAQ down over 1 percent, as technology shares suffered a sell-off and investors remained concerned about economic conditions.
When the market closed, the Dow Jones Industrial Average dipped 8.06 points, or 0.06 percent, to 13,548.94. The Standard & Poor's 500 was down 3.57 points, or 0.24 percent, to 1,457.34. The Nasdaq Composite Index tumbled 31.25 points, or 1.01 percent, to 3, 072.87. Full story
SAN FRANCISCO, Oct. 18 (Xinhua) -- Microsoft on Thursday announced its latest quarterly financial results, with numbers lower than analysts' expectation.
For the quarter ended on Sept. 30, the software giant reported revenue of 16.01 billion U.S. dollars and 5.31 billion dollars in operating income. Its profit was 4.47 billion dollars or 53 cents in diluted earnings per share (EPS). Full story
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