Google Inc's stock reached a new high on Friday, reflecting Wall Street's renewed faith in the Internet search leader as it introduces new ways for advertisers to reach its steadily expanding online audience.
The stock peaked at US$560.79 before falling back to finish at US$560.10, up US$7.27, or 1.3 percent.
The rally eclipsed Google's previous record high of US$558.58 attained in mid-July, just days before the Mountain View-based company disillusioned investors with a second-quarter profit below analyst estimates.
Google, founded just 9 years ago, now has a market value of almost US$175 billion, more than long-established technology bellwethers like Hewlett-Packard Co and IBM Corp. The stock has increased by more than six-fold from its initial public offering price of US$85 in August 2004.
The latest run-up in Google's stock represents a turnaround from a little over a month ago when the shares briefly dipped below US$500 amid the stock market turmoil triggered by a home mortgage meltdown that raised fears about a recession.
Those worries have lessened because of the Federal Reserve Bank's decision to lower short-term interest rates by 0.5 percentage point in a move expected to free up more money for consumers and businesses to spend.
Despite aggressive challenges by rivals like Yahoo Inc and Microsoft Corp, Google has been able to widen its lead in search -- the activity that triggers the text-based ad links that have become a huge moneymaker.
Last month, Google handled 54 percent of all US search requests, up 50 percent at the same time last year, according to the research firm Nielsen/NetRatings Inc. Yahoo lagged well behind at 20 percent followed by Microsoft at 13 percent.
MediaTek Inc (聯發科), the world’s biggest smartphone chip supplier, yesterday said it plans to double investment in data center-related technologies, including advanced packaging and high-speed interconnect technologies, to broaden the new business’ customer and service portfolios. The chip designer is redirecting its resources to data centers, mainly designing application-specific integrated circuits (ASIC) with artificial intelligence (AI) capabilities for cloud service providers. The data center business is forecast to lead growth in the next three years and become the company’s second-biggest revenue source, replacing chips used in smart devices, MediaTek president Joe Chen (陳冠州) told a media event in Taipei. “Three or four years
Until US President Donald Trump’s return a year ago, when the EU talked about cutting economic dependency on foreign powers — it was understood to mean China, but now Brussels has US tech in its sights. As Trump ramps up his threats — from strong-arming Europe on trade to pushing to seize Greenland — concern has grown that the unpredictable leader could, should he so wish, plunge the bloc into digital darkness. Since Trump’s Greenland climbdown, top officials have stepped up warnings that the EU is dangerously exposed to geopolitical shocks and must work toward strategic independence — in defense, energy and
Motorists ride past a mural along a street in Varanasi, India, yesterday.
CHALLENGES: The platform brings together accounting and legal experts in the two nations to deliver coordinated advisory services on investment and risk management PwC Taiwan has launched a Taiwan-US service platform to help Taiwanese companies expand into the US, underscoring a shift in corporate investment priorities, as nearly 40 percent of local firms now rank the US as their top overseas destination. The platform brings together accounting and legal professionals in Taiwan and the US to deliver coordinated advisory services, as supply chain realignment, geopolitical risk and shifts in industrial policy reshape global manufacturing and market access strategies, PwC Taiwan chairman and CEO Patrick Hsu (徐聖忠) told a media briefing in Taipei yesterday. “North America has moved from being an optional growth market to a
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