Google Earnings Up As Search Giant Bids Farewell To The GFC

Google’s earnings for the fourth quarter of 2009 surged as the search giant put the worst of the global financial crisis behind it.

Google reported revenues of $6.67 billion for the quarter ended December 31, 2009, up 17% vs the fourth quarter of 2008. Earnings for the quarter came in at $1.97 billion, up from $348 million for the same quarter of 2008. Earnings per share were $6.13, up from $1.21 a year earlier, although the 2008 figure included stock-based compensation and year-ago impairments, Adjusted, earnings rose to $6.79 from $5.10 per share.

Notable in the results were International Revenues, which totaled $3.52 billion, or 53% of total revenues in the Q4 09, compared to 50% in Q4 08. Google notes though that international revenue would have been slightly down had it not been for international currency movements.

Paid Clicks, including Google sites and AdSense partners were up 13% over Q4 08 and 9% over Q3 09. Google Network Revenues through AdSense came in at $2.04 billion, for 31% of total revenues, up 21% ion Q4 08.

“Google had a strong fourth quarter, with 17% year over year revenue growth,” CEO Eric Schmidt said in a statement. “Given that the global economy is still in the early days of recovery, this was an extraordinary end to the year.”

“As we enter 2010, we remain hugely optimistic about the internet and are continuing to invest heavily in technological innovation for the benefit not only of our users and customers, but also the wider web.”

The market though was expecting better returns, and GOOG stock took a hammering in after hours trading, dropping $24.98 a share, or 4.28%.