Google Beats: First Take On Earnings

By Leena Rao

Google (GOOG) just released earnings this afternoon, reporting revenues of $10.65 billion for the first quarter ended March 31, 2012, an increase of 24% compared to the first quarter of 2011 ($8.58 billion). Non-GAAP EPS in the first quarter of 2012 was $10.08. GAAP Net income came in at $2.9 billion, compared to $1.80 billion in the first quarter of 2011. The company was expected to report a profit of $9.64 a share, on revenue of $8.1 billion.

“Google had another great quarter with revenues up 24% year on year,” said Larry Page, CEO of Google. “We also saw tremendous momentum from the big bets we’ve made in products like Android, Chrome and YouTube. We are still at the very early stages of what technology can do to improve people’s lives and we have enormous opportunities ahead. It is a very exciting time to be at Google.”

The company also announced a new stock structure, revealing that the Board of Directors unanimously “approved a stock dividend proposal designed to preserve the corporate structure that has allowed Google to remain focused on the long term.”

Google-owned sites generated revenues of $7.31 billion, or 69% of total revenues, in the first quarter of 2012, which is a 24% increase over first quarter 2011 revenues of $5.88 billion. Google’s partner sites generated revenues of $2.91 billion, or 27% of total revenues, in the first quarter of 2012, a 20% increase from first quarter 2011 network revenues of $2.43 billion. Revenues from outside of the United States totaled $5.77 billion, representing 54% of total revenues in the first quarter of 2012,

Aggregate paid clicks increased 39% over the first quarter of 2011 and increased approximately 7% over the fourth quarter of 2011. Average cost-per-click, which includes clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of our Network members, decreased approximately 12% over the first quarter of 2011 and decreased approximately 6% over the fourth quarter of 2011.

Traffic acquisition costs, the portion of revenues shared with Google’s partners, increased to $2.51 billion in the first quarter of 2012, compared to TAC of $2.04 billion in the first quarter of 2011. TAC as a percentage of advertising revenues was 25% in the first quarter of 2012, compared to 25% in the first quarter of 2011.

Last quarter Google came up short of Wall Street expectations, reporting earnings per share of $9.50 and revenue of $8.13 billion.

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