Schmidt: Worst of recession over; Google hiring ahead
Google exceeded Wall Street’s expectations for the third quarter by reporting net income of $1.88 billion, or $5.89 per share, on revenue of $5.94 billion, up 7 percent from the same quarter a year ago.
Excluding traffic acquisition costs, Google’s revenue was $4.38 billion. Wall Street analysts had been expecting earnings of $5.42 a share on revenue of $4.24 billion. Adjusted for expenses, the company reported a net income of $1.64 billion, or $5.13 per share.
In a call with analysts, CEO Eric Schmidt said that the worst of the recession is behind us and that the company feels “confident about investing heavily in our future". The first investment will be in people. Yes, Google is stepping up its hiring across the company but particularly in engineering and sales, executives said during the call.
The second investment is in innovation, particularly in advertising. Schmidt noted that many advertisers have told Google that they want to spend more money on Google ads but are looking for new ways to advertise. In addition, mobile search has seen 30 percent growth and the company considers mobile to be an up-and-coming business division hat could use some investment boosts.
The other mobile business--the Android mobile OS--has also come a long way from one carrier, one device and one country a year ago to 12 devices in 26 countries with 32 carriers today, with more on the way. Executives played up Android on the call, with Schmidt saying that “Android adoption is literally about to explode".
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