January 24, 2009 – (HOSTSEARCH.COM) – Google has announced financial results for last quarter and the end of fiscal year 2008, it was announced recently. According to a company release, “Google performed well in the fourth quarter, despite an increasingly difficult economic environment.”
“Search query growth was strong, revenues were up in most verticals, and we successfully contained costs,” suggested Google’s CEO, Eric Schmidt. “It's unclear how long the global downturn will last, but our focus remains on the long term, and we'll continue to invest in Google's core search and ads business as well as in strategic growth areas such as display, mobile, and enterprise.”
Highlights of the results include revenues of $5.70 billion in the fourth quarter of 2008, an 18% increase on the same period 2007. Google-owned sites generated revenues of $3.81 billion (67% of total revenues) in the period, while Google Network Revenues (Google’s partner sites) generated AdSense revenues of $1.69 billion (30% of total revenues) - a 4% increase on the same period 2007. Revenues from outside of the United States stood at $2.86 billion for the quarter - 50% of total revenues. Revenues from the United Kingdom totaled $685 million, or 12% of revenue.
The company also announced that its Board had approved an exchange offer to “allow employees the opportunity to exchange all or a portion of their existing stock options for the same number of new options”. The company estimates stock-based compensation charges for grants to employees prior to January 1, 2009 to be approximately $1.04 billion for 2009.
Full details of the report are available at the company’s
corporate website.
