Google’s parent Alphabet’s first-quarter revenue exceeded market expectations on Tuesday, boosted by an uptick in advertising and steady demand for its cloud services
The company also announced a $70 billion (€63.7 billion) share buyback plan, sending its shares higher by about 3 per cent in extended trading. The company employs 5,500 people in Ireland.
Advertisers, who contribute to the bulk of Alphabet’s sales, have been shifting budgets from untested advertising models to proven platforms such as Google’s products and YouTube.
The company, meanwhile, has been looking to keep a tight control on costs amid recession fears and had in January decided to cut about 12,000 jobs. It has also been sharpening focus on artificial intelligence in its race to gain lost ground from Microsoft’s Bing and the Windows-backed ChatGPT maker, OpenAI.
Revenue for the quarter, which ended on March 31st, stood at $69.79 billion compared with estimates of $68.95 billion, according to Refinitiv data.
It reported a net profit of $15.05 billion for the first three months of the year compared with $16.44 billion a year earlier. – Reuters
