Google profit jumps 30% in the first quarter of 2008

Analysts had expected weaker results because industry data from ComScore showed slowing growth in the number of ad-clicks. Google's click growth instead proved to "remain healthy". In addition a feared slowdown in finance-related searches did not curb sales growth either. Both Bear Stearns and Countrywide announced a drop in fourth quarter ad spending between 5 and 10 percent. However, it is worth noting that click growth rate is the lowest since the company began reporting this metric in the fourth quarter of 2006. In last year's first quarter, paid clicks jumped 52% from the previous year -- more than double the growth rate for the recent period. CEO Eric Schmidt brushed off a slowdown in the growth rate saying that the absolute rate has been "very, very significant".

key stats:

• Net income, including costs from stock options, rose to $1.31 billion, or $4.12 a share, from $1 billion, or $3.18, a year earlier


• Sales excluding revenue passed on to partner sites, up 46 percent from the previous year at $3.7 billion. Revenue grew 65% in last year's first quarter and a whopping 92% in the first quarter of 2005.


• Ad-click growth up 20%, that is down from 52% in the first quarter of 2007 but much higher than the 1.8% expected from ComScore.


• A rise in the value of overseas currencies helped boost international sales by $202 million.


• Google captured 63% of Internet queries worldwide in February, up from 62% in


• For the first time, Google got most of its sales from outside the U.S. December.


• Chief Executive Officer Eric Schmidt said on a conference call Google is seeing "market share growth and good revenue growth in China".


• In its biggest round of job cuts ever, Google fired about 10 percent of DoubleClick's workers this month. The company said it added 2,351 employees in the quarter.

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source: An analysis of Google's Q1 earnings announcements
with CNBC's Jim Goldman
http://www.cnbc.com/id/15840232?video=715054158

read also: Google's paid click growth awful again in March
http://manonthestreet64.blogspot.com/2008/04/googles-paid-click-growth-awful-again.html