This year continues to be unkind for enterprises with falling stock prices, economic downturns and fears of a recession, a funding crunch, a slowdown in growth, rising inflation and interest rates, and other adverse macroeconomic factors in the market. This, coupled with a drop in PC and smartphone shipments, have made the September quarter a tough one for Big Tech companies across the globe. Google-parent Alphabet has been one of the many names to have taken a beating this year, and its performance in the third quarter of the year reflect the same.
Alphabet clocked $69.09 billion in revenue for the quarter ended September 30, 2022, which fell short of the estimated $70.58 billion and clocked an annual growth of 6%. This marks the slowest rate of growth by the company since 2013 (which might be a recurring theme for the recently-ended quarter).
It’s net profit for the same period, however, fell by 27% year-over-year (YoY), while it’s earnings per share (EPS) fell well below analyst estimations to reach $1.06 per share. It’s operating income for the same period fell to $17 billion.
Overall, the Google-parent pocketed $206 billion in revenue for the year ended September 30, 2022, while the total costs and expenses for the period rose to $150 billion. Its revenue from operations for the year ended September amounted to $56.68 billion, while it’s net income dropped YoY to amount to $46.3 billion.
The shares of the company fell by around 7% in extended trading on Tuesday after the earnings report was shared – it fell below $97 and it’s currently hovering at $96.82.
“We’re sharpening our focus on a clear set of product and business priorities. Product announcements we’ve made in just the past month alone have shown that very clearly, including significant improvements to both Search and Cloud, powered by AI, and new ways to monetize YouTube Shorts. We are focused on both investing responsibly for the long term and being responsive to the economic environment,” said Sundar Pichai, CEO of Google and Alphabet.
At a time when advertisers are cutting down on spending, Google’s advertising division pocketed $54.48 billion in the quarter – which is an annual growth, but a rather slow one. Both the revenue from YouTube advertising and Google Network clocked annual drops to reach $7 billion and $7.8 billion respectively.
According to Philipp Schindler, Google’s chief business officer for Google, there was a withdrawal in the expenditure on search ads from certain areas such as insurance, loans, mortgage and cryptocurrencies.
Google’s Cloud – which includes Google’s infrastructure and platform services, and others – and Other Bets divisions – which includes several operating segments – clocked growth during the third quarter of the year, however, and their revenues reflect the same – $6.8 billion and $209 million respectively. However, their operating losses widened for the quarter as well – Google Cloud and Other Bets clocked a loss of $0.69 billion and $1.6 billion respectively.
Going forward, Alphabet intends to “realign resources to fuel our highest growth priorities,” as well as add to it’s head count at a slower rate than usual – it intends to “add fewer than half as many employees in the fourth quarter as it did in the third” and continue recruitments for critical roles next year.
