With three days away when Google will report its earnings on Thursday. The search giant issued a fourth-quarter report in January which shows how much the profit comes below expectations and during a conference call, executives were mugged up with questions about an 8% decline in prices paid by advertisers during the time a user clicked on their ads.
“As you shift from PC to mobile, there’re just so many more clicks,” said Anthony DiClemente, an analyst covering Google for Barclays. “That has broad ramifications for the pricing and volume of Google’s fundamental business.” “More clicking,” Mr. Pichette reasoned, is “actually a pretty healthy environment.”
Chief Executive Larry Page already has dropped some related news; writing in an open letter posted on his Google+ page Thursday that the social network now has “well over 100 million users.” That compares with 90 million Google+ users (an increase in 10 million users) disclosed by the CEO when the company posted earnings in January.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expect Google to report $8.1 billion in net revenue for the first quarter, and adjusted earnings per share of $9.64. That compares to $6.5 billion in net revenue, and $8.08 per share in the same period last year.
