Google shares leap as quarterly profit beats expectations

[SAN FRANCISCO] Google shares leapt on Thursday after the Internet colossus reported quarterly earnings that beat Wall Street expectations.

Newly formed parent company Alphabet reported that Google profit in the recently ended quarter jumped 45 per cent to US$3.98 billion on revenue that was up 13 per cent to US$18.67 billion.

Shares were up more than 10 per cent US$719 in after-market trades.

The third quarter results "show the strength of Google's business, particularly in mobile search," chief financial officer Ruth Porat said.

"With six products now having more than one billion users globally, we're excited about the opportunities ahead of Google, and across Alphabet."

Alphabet also announced that its board of directors has authorised US$5.09 billion worth of shares starting in the current quarter.

Google revenue and profit grew strongly, with successes in the crucial mobile Internet market, while the company manage to keep a rein on expenses, according to earnings figures.

"The key highlight this quarter was the strong growth of our mobile search revenue," Ms Porat said during an earnings call, noting that YouTube also helped power the revenue rise.

Google's new parent company hit the stock market early this month.

Alphabet - the new parent of the Google search unit and a variety of other separate technology divisions - trades under the old GOOG and GOOGL symbols on the Nasdaq exchange.

Alphabet subsidiaries include Google, Nest Labs, and Google X labs devoted to big-vision new technologies such as self-driving cars.

The move gives the tech giant more ability to focus on its core business, while offering startup-like flexibility to long shot, trailblazing projects.

While Google is best known as the dominant player in Internet search, it has launched a variety of projects in recent years that are marginally related at best to its core operation.

The projects include self-driving cars, smart spectacles "Google Glass," Internet balloons, drones, health care, Google TV, mobile payments, home automation and its Google+ social network, among others, none of which has become a major revenue source.

Chief executive Larry Page holds the same position at the new parent group, with executive chairman Eric Schmidt doing the same.

The Google unit, headed by current company vice president Sundar Pichai, includes search, ads, maps, YouTube, Android and related technology infrastructure.

AFP