Schmidt: Google 'well-positioned' for a recession
Chief Executive Eric Schmidt acknowledged that a shortage of credit in financial markets is a "very serious issue" and that many people are expecting a global
"It's too early to say if there's (already) been any specific impact. But if there were, I don't think it would be much," Schmidt told reporters at a briefing during a visit to Sydney, Australia.
"We believe that if there were (a U.S. recession), we'll be well positioned. We're not particularly dependent on any particular one market. There's not a lot of advertising for any one market over another," he said.
Google, which earned $4.83 billion in revenue in the fourth quarter, makes around 98 percent of its income from text ads but was exploring new formats, such as advertising on YouTube videos.
Google has a $900 million, three-year deal to sell advertising to News Corp.'s MySpace.com customers under which it must pay MySpace whether or not it makes money selling ads on the site.
Shares in Google, which traded near $750 in November, fell 4.1 percent to $419.87 on Monday.