Trading in Google’s shares were suspended yesterday after the company released bad sales and profits figures early by mistake.
The search company’s stocks crashed by as much as 11pc and wiped more than £13.7 billion ($22 billion) off the value of the company after they inadvertently published figures which revealed a 20pc fall in profits.
The announcement was scheduled for publication after markets closed in New York, but they were accidentally published four hours early.
Third quarter profits fell 20% on a year earlier to £1.35 billion ($2.18 billion) and are well below analysts’ expectations.
It delivered revenues of £6.99 billion in the third quarter, but these fell short of analyst estimates of £7.30 billion. Last year the same quarterly profit figures were a fifth higher at £1.69 billion.
Google’s filings with America’s Securities & Exchange Commission revealed a worrying drop in the amount of money the technology company receives for each advert users click on its websites.
Its average income per click fell 15pc over the three months to the end of September, sparking fears that it is losing traction with advertisers and failing to monetise internet usage on mobiles as efficiently as it has done on traditional personal computers.
Google blamed financial printing firm RR Donnelley for filing an early draft of the results, which had been expected after the closing bell.
The slide in Google’s share price took the company’s market value back down below that of Microsoft- which it had overtaken earlier this month.
Google also revealed in the filings that it plans to make significant capital expenditures, reviving concerns over the amount of money it is spending on expanding it’s operations and hiring staff around the world.
The company’s total costs shot up by 71pc, despite commitments to cut staff in some of its divisions.
The core business seems to have slowed down pretty significantly, which is shocking. The shift could be driven by a drop in Google’s popularity as a search engine as people start searching more through apps on tablets and smartphones.
Certainly we at Dyenamic Solutions have noticed an increase in the number and the value of PPC AdWords vouchers which Google are giving us to promote pay as you go advertising on their websites.
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