Google has once again posted optimistic growth this quarter boasting $8.44 billion in revenue, and increase of 26% compared to fourth quarter of 2009 in which revenue was $6.67 billion. Traffic acquisition costs, which Google includes in the $8.44 billion number were $2.07 billion, or 25% of total revenue. The slides above show more in-depth results.
Google beat the street easily, with analysts expecting non-GAAP earnings per share at $8.06 and $6.1 billion in net revenue. Non-GAAP earning per share in the fourth quarter of 2010 were actually $8.75.
Google ended the quarter with with $35B in cash and marketable securities and 24,400 employees. Paid clicks were up 18% year over year and cost per click was up 5%. Other revenues, non advertising revenues, reached $1 billion for the first time, even though they were still only 4% of revenues versus 3% from last year.
Google Q4 net GAAP profit for the 4th quarter of 2010 was $2.54 billion, or $7.81 a share compared to $1.97 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009, a jump of 29%. Non-GAAP profit was $2.85 billion or $8.75 a share compared to $2.19 billion in 2009.
The company has also announced that Larry Page will be taking over as CEO. Google stock is currently up 1%.
Said Schmidt in a statement,
“We’ve been talking about how best to simplify our management structure and speed up decision making for a long time. By clarifying our individual roles we’ll create clearer responsibility and accountability at the top of the company. In my clear opinion, Larry is ready to lead and I’m excited about working with both him and Sergey for a long time to come.”
“The digital economy is clearly in high gear,” quipped Google CFO Patrick Pichette in the earnings call.