Google revenues surge 42 percent

Stuart Corner
Friday, 18 April 2008 04:44

Your IT - Home IT

Google has reported revenues of $US5.19b for the first quarter of 2008, a 42 percent increase on Q1 2007 and a seven percent increase on Q4 of 2007, and results look likely to be boosted even further as it integrates the operations of its DoubleClick acquistion which closed near the end of the quarter.

The company said that "The overall impact of DoubleClick in the first quarter of 2008 was immaterial to revenue and only slightly dilutive to both GAAP and non-GAAP operating income, net income and earnings per share." CEO Eric Schmidt, said: "As we integrate DoubleClick into our advertising platform, we see exciting new ways to improve the user experience and increase value for our advertisers and partners."

Google-owned sites generated revenues of $US3.40b, or 66 percent of total revenues, in the first quarter of 2008, a 49 percent increase over Q1 2007 revenues of $2.28b and a nine percent increase over Q4 2007 revenues of $3.12b. Google's partner sites generated revenues through AdSense programs of $US1.69b, 33 percent of total revenues, in Q1 2008, a 25 percent increase on Q1 2007 and a three percent increase on Q4 2007.

Google reports operating income, net income, and earnings per share (EPS) on a GAAP and non-GAAP basis. GAAP operating income for the first quarter of 2008 was $US1.55b, or 30 percent of revenues. Non-GAAP operating income in the first quarter of 2008 was $US1.83b, or 35 percent of revenues. GAAP net income for the first quarter of 2008 was $1.31 billion as compared to $1.21 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007. Non-GAAP net income in the first quarter of 2008 was $1.54 billion, compared to $1.41 billion in the fourth quarter of 2007.

Revenues from outside the United States totalled $US2.65b, 51 percent of total compared to 47 percent in Q1 2007 and 48 percent in Q4 2007. Revenues from the UK were 15 percent of the total.
 
Paid clicks related to ads served on Google sites and those of its AdSense partners increased 20 percent over Q1 2007 and four percent over Q4 2007. Traffic acquisition costs, the portion of revenues shared with Google's partners, increased to $1.49 billion in the first quarter of 2008. Other cost of revenues - data centre operational expenses, credit card processing charges and content acquisition costs, increased to $US624m, 12 percent of revenues, compared to $US516m, 11 percent of revenues, in Q4 2007.

Google employed 19,156 full-time employees as of March 31, 2008, up from 16,805 full-time employees as of December 31, 2007. Of the 2,351 added, approximately 1,500 were associated with DoubleClick. Google said that since closing that deal approximately 10 percent of the DoubleClick workforce in the US had been laid off.