The strong growth, plus a cash balance of $72.8 billion, gave Google’s board enough confidence to authorize $5.1 billion in share buybacks, the first ever. The stock -- which was already trading near a record after a recent surge -- jumped as much as 11 percent.
All this shows how Chief Executive Officer Larry Page and new Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat are bringing more operational and financial discipline to the sprawling Web enterprise. As part of that, the business will become a new holding company called Alphabet to separate Google’s main business from various new endeavors, and the new structure will be reflected in results starting next year
Revenue, excluding sales passed on to partners, rose 15 percent to $15.1 billion in the third quarter, the company said in a statement Thursday, compared with analysts’ average estimate for $15 billion, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Profit, excluding some items, was $7.35 a share, beating predictions of $7.20. The figures are still being reported in line with past quarters -- before the final transition in the coming months.
A key challenge for Google’s management is to control spending on initiatives to boost Web traffic, which are aimed at making up for declining ad prices on mobile devices. Those efforts are paying off, with total clicks on ads up 23 percent, even as the average price for ads fell 16 percent on Google’s websites.
This to me is an indication that google has placed itself on the the platform to control the digital world for an estimated time. Let us hear your view.
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