Alphabet’s share price soared nearly 10% in after-hours trading following the release of its fourth quarter and annual results which, if repeated when the markets reopen for trading on Tuesday, should easily take it to the top of the corporate pile.
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Alphabet, formed as part of a Google restructure a year ago, is worth $570 billion (£399 billion) according to Wall Street, eclipsing Apple’s market capitalisation of $539 billion (£377 billion).
“The primary driver (of growth) was mobility”, said Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat, on a conference call to discuss the results.
Revenues from “Other Bets”, which covers more experimental projects like self-driving cars and internet balloons, made $448m, an increase of 37 per cent on its previous year, but the unit operated at a loss of $3.6bn.
Alphabet reported that its overall revenue for past year rose to $74.5 billion from $65.7 billion in 2014.
The move unveiled past year gives the tech giant more ability to focus on its core business, while offering startup-like flexibility to long-shot, trailblazing projects. Its capital expenditures were $2.1 billion and free cash flow was $4.3 billion.
Bowing to investor pressure, Alphabet reorganized past year to separate its core Google search, YouTube and Android businesses from its startup “moonshot” operations in transportation, healthcare and communications. For instance, how much Alphabet has invested in self-driving cars or the Internet of Things based on the report is hard to determine.
Google promises to maintain its dominance from desktop to mobile in its advertising and search positions.
Apple is in for a rough second quarter as the company is expected to announce its first ever decline in iPhone sales and its first year-over-year revenue drop in thirteen years.
Pichai said that Google is seeing “incredible progress” with enhancing services with artificial intelligence.
Alphabet Inc.(NASDAQ: GOOGL) posted earnings of $8.67 USA per share on revenue of $21.33 billion.
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“Keep in mind that Other Bets represents an aggregation of businesses, many of which operate in distinct sectors with different business models”, she said in an earnings call transcribed by Seeking Alpha.
