14 DAY TRIAL // Google has revealed its financial results for the fourth quarter of 2009 and, even with high expectations, it managed to surprise everyone with a very good quarter. The tone was very confident and optimistic among the top execs at Google starting with CEO Eric Schmidt. Revenue was at $6.67 billion in Q4, up 17 percent from last year. Income also saw a huge boost reaching $1.97 billion, up from $382 million a year earlier.
The strong results come from an equally confident third quarter when Google announced that the worst of the recession had passed, at least for the company, and that it would start firing on all cylinders from then on. Google delivered on its promise with a string of acquisitions bolstering its position in some key markets, such as mobile and advertising, but also with strong revenue and profits in the following quarter which just ended.
Google wasn't immune to the economic troubles that plagued most companies, but managed to stay on top of the situation and still grow sequentially in all quarters in 2009 except one. Compared to 2008, it grew and was also profitable in all quarters, quite a feat when everyone else was taking a beating.
As expected, the vast majority of revenue came from advertising with the bulk of that coming from its own proprieties. Google sites brought in $4.42 billion, 66 percent of the revenue for Q4, and partner sites a further $2.04 billion through AdSense, 31 percent of the total. With the earnings from the last quarter, Google's cash and cash equivalents is at $24.5 billion, enough to afford to buy any company that it has even a remote interest in, so Google's acquisition spree may be just beginning.
"Google had a strong fourth quarter, with 17% year over year revenue growth," Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google said. "Given that the global economy is still in the early days of recovery, this was an extraordinary end to the year. Our performance in 2009 underscored the strength of our management team, the resilience of our business model and the pace of innovation within our product and engineering teams, which continued unabated throughout the downturn. As we enter 2010, we remain hugely optimistic about the internet and are continuing to invest heavily in technological innovation for the benefit not only of our users and customers, but also the wider web."