SAN FRANCISCO |
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – Google Inc’s quarterly results fell short of Wall Street’s heightened expectations for the holiday season as declining search advertising rates contributed to a rare miss, triggering a 9 percent slide in its shares.
The No. 1 Internet search engine underperformed on both revenue and earnings in the fourth quarter, disappointing investors who had counted on record U.S. online-commerce to prop up results.
Its shares dived to about $583 in after-hours trade, from the Nasdaq close of $639.57 before the results. Several analysts zeroed in on an 8 percent drop in cost-per-click, or money paid by advertisers to the company, versus analyst estimates of a slight increase.
“Expectations had got ahead of themselves for Google, largely because investors don’t have a good feel for what happens outside the U.S.,” said Stifel Nicolaus analyst Jordan Rohan. “North America has remained strong, but there are parts of the world where there’s a lot of economic pressure.
“I would have to assume Europe
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