Google 3rd Quarter 2008 Earnings

Google 3rd Quarter 2008 Earnings results:

• $4.92 / share
• $4.04 Billion total quarter revenue
• Added 519 Employees
• 18% growth in Adwords Revenue

My last post mentioned the general decline in stock values across the entire internet business sector, but in the last fifteen minutes of trading Google managed to rise back up into the positive figures.

In after hour trading, Google is up another 10-15%. Anyone who bought at today’s low’s should be pretty glad with their easy gain of 20-25% 🙂

There’s a lot of anticipation and nervousness in the Google stock trade today, because investors have been waiting for a 3rd Quarter earnings report for 2008. Google doesn’t offer any “guidance” of this number in advance, but the analysts have been expecting an earning of about $4.75 a share. A lot of companies try to influence their stock price by offering this “guidance” based on their internal expectations and projections. Google simply isn’t interested in this, I suppose they like to deliver surprises!

Google is still seen as a leader for the internet business sector, so any gains will be seen as a boost to other internet stocks. Declines could signal the beginning of the end of the latest internet bubble that has seen tens of millions sent to websites like Cuil and Digg that don’t necessarily have a great business model for ever recovering that kind of money.

Will the high earnings indicate higher payback for publishers? Have they accomplished this by moving in on their competition and dominating a shrinking field?

I still think the outlook for online business is optimistic – when in doubt, do what Google does!