Recession didn’t seem a major concern for the company that holds the most popular search engine in the world. The fourth-quarter earnings reported by Google topped analysts’ predictions, which would probably test the resilience of the online advertising market, according to some of the biggest players in the local market polled by Wall-Street.
“The financial results of a market segment leader indicates the trend of the entire market”
Mihai Seceleanu (photo), managing director of InternetCorp said the fourth-quarter earning report made public by Google last week is showing signs of online advertising market’s “healthy condition”.
“The positive Q4 earnings will have a positive impact on online advertising industry. Google’s financial results are only reiterating the facts examined so far – the fact that the communication and media industry is one of the least affected markets by the increasingly difficult economic environment, as more and more companies are seeking to boost their online advertising spending”, said Mihai Seceleanu.
Google reported 382.4 million dollars net income, or 1.21 dollars on 317 million diluted shares outstanding compared to 1.2 billion dollars in the third quarter of 2008 or 3.79 income per diluted shares in 2007. The net income included one-time charges of 1.09 billion dollars to account for the declining value of Google's investments in Clearwires and the AOL unit of Time Warner.
Profit, excluding those write-downs and items like stock-based compensation, was 5.10 a share, beating analysts expectations of 4.69 dollars/share.
Overall, Google recorded an increase of 18% to 5.70 billion compared to 4.83 billion dollars in fourth quarter of 2007. Excluding commissions, the net revenues rose to 4.22 billion dollars, above analysts projections of 4.12 billion dollars.
The giants of Internet realms who focus
