Google Now Has $26.5 Billion in Cash

Google has announced its first-quarter financial results and they’re even more positive than analysts expected. The company brought in $6.77 billion in the first quarter of 2010, a 23-percent increase over the same period last year. Net income rose 37 percent year-over-year to $1.96 billion.

“Google performed very well in the first quarter, with 23% year over year revenue growth driven by strength across all major verticals and geographies,” Patrick Pichette, CFO of Google, said. “Going forward, we remain committed to heavy investment in innovation -- both to spur future growth in our core and emerging businesses as well as to help build the future of the open web.”

Net revenue was at $5.06 billion, after deducting traffic acquisition costs of $1.71 billion. That’s slightly above Wall Street expectations, which put it at $4.93 billion. Google’s own sites brought in 66 percent of the total revenue, $4.44 billion, while ad revenue from partner sites made up $2.04 billion, or 30 percent of the revenue. Paid clicks rose 15 percent year-over-year, five percent from the previous quarter, and cost-per-click also rose seven percent from Q1 2009.

Net income was at $1.96 billion, or $6.06 per share, up from $1.42 billion in 2009. Operating income was of $2.49 billion, 37 percent of revenues for the first quarter. International revenues made up 53 percent of the total revenue, namely $3.58 billion. The UK remains its biggest international market, bringing in $842 million in Q1 2010, 13 percent of its total revenue.

All signs point to a company that is doing better than ever, not that it suffered too much during the economic recession anyway. It now has $26.5 billion in its coffers, so its acquisition spree is more than guaranteed. It’s also hiring again, growing to 20,621 employees from 19,835 on December 31, 2009.