Google's 17% Profit Not Good Enough for Markets

Search giant comes up short of estimates
By Jonas Oransky,  Newser Staff
Posted Jan 31, 2008 4:14 PM CST
Google's 17% Profit Not Good Enough for Markets
Japanese university computer students from schools in Tokyo pose for pictures as they tour around Google headquarters in Mountain View, Calif., in this April 19, 2007 file photo. (AP Photo/Paul Sakuma, file)   (Associated Press)

Google disappointed investors with its after-hours announcement of a 17% rise in net income, signaling to many that credit woes could be hurting Internet use. The climb to $1.21 billion, or $3.79 per share, from $1.03 billion, or $3.29 a share, one year earlier underperformed estimates of a $3.91 share price, Bloomberg reports. The search giant’s shares have already fallen 18% in 2008.

Web searches also fell 3.9% in December. Consumer confidence is remarkably low, and watchers worry that Google customers will cut their ad budgets—damaging the company's bottom line. Google accounted for 75% of all domestic search ads last year; still, it rarely misses observers’ quarterly estimates, and 32 of 36 analysts continue to list the stock as a buy. (More Google stories.)

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