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World's leading search engine reports sales and profits that are below Wall Street's targets. Stock plunges on news.
January 31 2008: 4:19 PM EST
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Google reported earnings and sales for the fourth quarter that missed Wall Street estimates, sending the stock tumbling after hours.
Shares of the leading Internet search company, which has typically blown away analysts' forecasts, slid 6% after the bell, after going up slightly in regular trading on Thursday. Google's stock has taken a hit in recent weeks, dipping nearly 25% below its all-time high of $747 last November.
Google reported that its fourth quarter revenue came in at $4.83 billion, up 51% from a year ago. Excluding advertising sales that Google (GOOG, Fortune 500) shares with partners (also known as traffic acquisition costs or TAC), the company reported revenue of $3.39 billion, below the $3.45 billion analysts had expected, according to Thomson Financial.
Google posted net income of $1.44 billion, or $3.79 a share, up 17% percent from a year ago. Profits, after backing out certain gains and charges, came in at $4.43 per share, narrowly missing Wall Street's expectations of $4.44 a share.
The Mountain View, Calif.-based company's core business is search advertising, but it has recently made an a more aggressive push into the mobile industry, launching an operating system called Android for cell phones. The first Android-running mobile devices are expected to come out later this year.
Google's closest search rival, Yahoo (YHOO, Fortune 500), disappointed Wall Street earlier this week when it announced its fourth quarter net income fell 23% from a year ago and said that sales for 2008 would be lower than analysts' forecasts.