‘Hey Google, What Happened to Revenue Growth?’
“Alphabet’s stock tanks with analysts asking, ‘Hey Google, what happened to revenue growth?’”, headlines CNBC as first-quarter revenue for Alphabet Inc – the parent company of Google and for other companies like Nest – missed analysts’ estimates and that sparked fears that advertisers are shifting some spending to digital rivals away from Google, adds Bloomberg.
The Bloomberg post reports that first-quarter sales came in at $29.5 billion, excluding payments to distribution partners, Alphabet said in a statement, but Wall Street was looking for $30.04 billion, according to the average of analysts’ estimates compiled by Bloomberg.
Bloomberg added that revenue from Google advertising “rose 15 percent, the slowest pace since 2015. That was a stark contrast to scandal-plagued Facebook Inc., which last week reported a 26 percent jump in ad sales.”
Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat attributed the slowdown to currency fluctuations and the timing of product changes, though she didn’t explain which products and why that would hurt growth.
More here.
