Google says profit quadrupled
Today Google announced that quarterly profit more than quadrupled, thanks to growth in search advertising. However, shares fell 5% as revenue failed to match high expectations and the company said summer doldrums were hurting business.
CEO Eric Schmidt said that the current quarter may not see the same 15% sequential revenue gain Google posted last year, when results were boosted by a frenzy of media coverage leading up to Google’s IPO.
Google, based on Mountain View, California has expanded its services beyond web search to free email, web logs, video search, and comparison shopping. All of these services carry some search advertising that makes up almost all company revenue.
Google currently trades at a lofty 59 times its projected 2005 net earnings per share, while Yahoo trades at about 56 times.