Google owner Alphabet’s profits drop after $5bn fine but shares surge

Google parent company Alphabet reported a sharp drop in profits on Monday as the company absorbed the likely $5bn cost of a record-breaking fine from European regulators. The European Union fined Google earlier this month after accusing it of “serious illegal behaviour” to secure its dominance in mobile search. The company is appealing the decision but included the charge in its latest quarterly earnings report. Alphabet reported revenues of $26.24bn for the quarter, comfortably beating analysts’ expectations, and made a profit of $2.8bn, down from a profit of $4.1bn for the same period last year after the fine. Excluding the fine, the company would have had revenues of $32.6bn and a profit of $7.8bn. In a statement, Ruth Porat, chief financial officer of Alphabet and Google, said the company had delivered “another quarter of very strong performance”. Alphabet’s share price rose over 6% in after hours trading as investors shrugged off the long-term impact of the EU fine. Alphabet is facing regulatory headwinds on both sides of the Atlantic as lawmakers grow increasingly concerned about its dominance of online advertising. Google’s advertising business grew 24% over the quarter. The EU fine followed an extensive investigation into the tech company’s policy… Read full this story

Google owner Alphabet's profits drop after $5bn fine but shares surge have 313 words, post on www.theguardian.com at July 23, 2018. This is cached page on CHUTEU. If you want remove this page, please contact us.