Google boosts profit, revenue in third quarter


SAN FRANCISCO |
Thu Oct 13, 2011 4:37pm EDT

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google Inc’s third-quarter results trounced Wall Street expectations as good cost controls helped boost the Internet search leader’s profit by about 26 percent.

Shares of Google were up roughly 6 percent at $592.43 in after-hours trading on Thursday.

Google said its net income in the three months ended September 30 grew to $2.73 billion from $2.17 billion in the year-ago period.

Excluding certain items, Google said it earned $9.72 per share in the third quarter. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S were expecting adjusted EPS of $8.74.

“A lot of people were expecting spending to be out of control, but they had good control,” said Herman Leung, an analyst with Susquehanna Financial Group.

Google, which faces increasing competition from social networking giant Facebook, said on Thursday that it had signed up more than 40 million users for its recently launched Google+ social network.

Google said its third-quarter net revenue, which excludes fees that Google shares with partner websites, increased 37 percent year-on-year to $7.51 billion. Analysts were looking for $7.22 billion in net revenue.

(Reporting by Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Richard Chang)

Article source: http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/10/13/us-google-idUSTRE79A3ZL20111013

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