Google Q4: So Long, Charlie

Haven't listened to the conference call yet, but looks like another mind-blower.  Revenue decelerating, yes, but still growing so fast that Yahoo and Microsoft look parked.

More tomorrow a.m...

 

Comments

[Victor]

What I find amazing is how expectations have been ramping up incessantly and google still beats them (by a huge margin on EPS, only slightly on rev) and this is taken to be a failure. Looking at the estimates people were suggesting for rev on your goog sweepstakes it's obvious why. People are expecting ridiculous numbers from google. I mean, you only need to plot revenue per quarter and TAC to see the very obvious trend lower in growth and reduction in margins. Nevertheless the decrease in growth is very predictable and has not been precipitous at all. Google's still going to generate a phenomenal amount of net income in 2007 and undoubtably I think people should be bullish on the stock, but let's be realistic next time!

[Bjorn]

Well, it's stock market and share owners only gain from stocks when they increase in value (unless they're shorting). Stocks only grow in value when the company is growing. It's not about performance really, but about what people think will happen to Google. Apple reports a huge profit, but stocks sink because its forecasts are low. It's ridiculous. Individual stocks are ridiculous, anyone who's not a money manager should just stick to large, diversified funds and not worry about individual stock prices, unless they got a major stake.

Google is a hugely profitable company, and it's not a fad, it has huge cash assets, a huge brand, a huge technological advantage, talented staff. The shine is going to wear off eventually, what will be left will look a lot like IBM for the next century. Unless there's an Enron like scandal in the midst that we don't know about yet, which is unlikely. And there's always the specter of click fraud.

[Mick Weinstein]

We have the conference call transcribed here:

http://internet.seekingalpha.com/article/25717