A daily digest of IT news, curated from blogs, forums and news sites around the web each morning. We highlight the key commentary and demystify the real story.
Google's (GOOG) stock price dropped $33, or almost 6 percent in after-hours trading last night. Why? Its first-quarter results didn't meet The Street's expectations, and people are worried about its expanding salary bill. In IT Blogwatch, bloggers run the numbers on Schmidt's schwansong.
Your humble blogwatcher curated these bloggy bits for your entertainment. Not to mention Fujitsu's overpaid art dept creating Escher-esq havoc...
Cade Metz haz factz:
The company's non-GAAP earnings reached $3.23 billion in ... first quarter ... about $8.08 a share. ... Wall Street ... anticipated $8.10. ... Earnings rose 16 per cent ... revenues reached $8.58 billion, a 27 per cent leap.
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Google-owned and -operated sites delivered revenues of $5.88 billion ... a 32 per cent increase. ... Google AdSense ... produced revenues of $2.43 billion of total revenues, a 19 per cent increase. ... Paid clicks increased roughly 18 per cent ... while the cost per click increased 8 per cent. ... Other revenues were down 10 per cent.
Anthony Ha looks at expenses:
Operating expenses appear to be responsible for ... falling slightly short of Wall Street estimates. ... Chief Financial Officer Patrick Pichette said some of the increase was fueled by more advertising for Google products, especially its Chrome Web browser.
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The browser offers two main benefits for Google, he said. ... He repeated Googles frequent statement that Chrome is ... improving the Web experience, and ... noted that Chrome is optimized for Google products. ... Everybody that uses Chrome is a guaranteed locked-in user, in terms of having access to Google.
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The increased costs [also] include improved compensation for existing Googlers and the hiring of about 2,000 more full-time employees.
Erick Schonfeld adds more on the employment costs angle:
Everyone at Google got a 10 percent salary increase. Google ended the quarter with 26,316 people. ... Senior VP Jeff Huber says on the call that this is a great time to invest in headcount.
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[But] it is paying out a lot on stock based compensation ... [which] increased to $432 million from $291 million in the first quarter of 2010. That is up $141 million.
Steve Mayall focuses on YouTube and Android:
Pichette spoke briefly about YouTube: Weve seen YouTube develop into ... a win-win platform ... where partners can generate significant revenue ... and users watch 2 billion views a day. ... Susan Wojcicki said that Revenue is doubling year-over-year, and we share that revenue with over 20,000 content partners.
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350,000 new Android devices are being activated ... every day.
Trust in Faith Merino not to pull the wool over our eyes:[You're fired -Ed.]
In his last quarter as CEO of Google, Eric Schmidt left a sweet parting gift for the company: [a] revenue ... increase of 27%. ... April is a big month of change for the company ... Eric Schmidt officially stepped down and 38-year-old co-founder Larry Page stepped in as the new CEO.
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The real earnings call to watch will be Q2, which ... will be the real test of Pages muster. ... Can Larry Page save the day? ... Tune in next quarter to find out!
