Google parent company Alphabet Inc on Monday reported mixed third-quarter results, beating analyst expectations for revenue, but falling short on profits. The stock fell more than 2 percent in after-hours trading.
Still, the company met growth expectations for its key moneymaking businesses — notably its advertising business, which reported revenue that increased 17 percent to US$33.9 billion during the quarter.
However, Alphabet’s capital expenditures grew at the same time, rising to US$6.7 billion in the period as Google continued to expand its headquarters and build data centers for its cloud computing business.
Alphabet makes the majority of its money from selling targeted advertising across the Web, apps and Google products, including its search engine and video streaming site YouTube. Investors are closely watching the growth of Google’s cloud business.
“I am extremely pleased with the progress we made across the board in the third quarter, from our recent advancements in search and quantum computing to our strong revenue growth driven by mobile search, YouTube and Cloud,” Google chief executive officer Sundar Pichai said in a statement.
Google does not break out its quarterly cloud-computing revenue, but lumps it into an “other revenue” category, with products such as hardware and Google app store purchases. Revenue for that category grew to US$6.4 billion from US$4.6 billion last year.
Chief financial officer Ruth Porat said the quarter was “unusually” active for hiring, as Google brought on nearly 6,500 employees during the period.
While that number covers companywide hires, Google has made it clear that hiring engineers and especially sales workers for its cloud business is a priority.
Overall, Alphabet reported a profit of US$7.1 billion, or earnings per share of US$10.12 — significantly below the US$8.7 billion expected by analysts polled by FactSet.
Quarterly revenue rose 20 percent to US$40.5 billion — slightly above the US$40.3 billion expected by Wall Street, although total expenses grew faster, rising almost 25 percent to US$31.3 billion.
Alphabet’s Other Bets division, which includes long-term aspirational projects such as self-driving car company Waymo and drone delivery company Wing, reported increased revenue of US$155 million, but a growing loss of US$941 million.
Alphabet is in talks for a potential acquisition of smartwatch maker Fitbit Inc, a move that could bolster its hardware business, while also increasing antitrust scrutiny, a person familiar with the deal said.
Reports of the talks earlier on Monday sent Fitbit’s stock up as much as 41 percent, but Alphabet chief financial officer Ruth Porat declined to comment on whether the two companies are in discussions.
Among the rows of vibrators, rubber torsos and leather harnesses at a Chinese sex toys exhibition in Shanghai this weekend, the beginnings of an artificial intelligence (AI)-driven shift in the industry quietly pulsed. China manufactures about 70 percent of the world’s sex toys, most of it the “hardware” on display at the fair — whether that be technicolor tentacled dildos or hyper-realistic personalized silicone dolls. Yet smart toys have been rising in popularity for some time. Many major European and US brands already offer tech-enhanced products that can enable long-distance love, monitor well-being and even bring people one step closer to
Malaysia’s leader yesterday announced plans to build a massive semiconductor design park, aiming to boost the Southeast Asian nation’s role in the global chip industry. A prominent player in the semiconductor industry for decades, Malaysia accounts for an estimated 13 percent of global back-end manufacturing, according to German tech giant Bosch. Now it wants to go beyond production and emerge as a chip design powerhouse too, Malaysian Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim said. “I am pleased to announce the largest IC (integrated circuit) Design Park in Southeast Asia, that will house world-class anchor tenants and collaborate with global companies such as Arm [Holdings PLC],”
Sales in the retail, and food and beverage sectors last month continued to rise, increasing 0.7 percent and 13.6 percent respectively from a year earlier, setting record highs for the month of March, the Ministry of Economic Affairs said yesterday. Sales in the wholesale sector also grew last month by 4.6 annually, mainly due to the business opportunities for emerging applications related to artificial intelligence (AI) and high-performance computing technologies, the ministry said in a report. The ministry forecast that retail, and food and beverage sales this month would retain their growth momentum as the former would benefit from Tomb Sweeping Day
Thousands of parents in Singapore are furious after a Cordlife Group Ltd (康盛人生集團), a major operator of cord blood banks in Asia, irreparably damaged their children’s samples through improper handling, with some now pursuing legal action. The ongoing case, one of the worst to hit the largely untested industry, has renewed concerns over companies marketing themselves to anxious parents with mostly unproven assurances. This has implications across the region, given Cordlife’s operations in Hong Kong, Macau, Indonesia, the Philippines and India. The parents paid for years to have their infants’ cord blood stored, with the understanding that the stem cells they contained