Google's Q4 earnings top expectations

Search giant Google hit the earnings ball out of the park in Q4, 2006, increasing revenue by 67%. The revenue boost was led by Google's always profitable paid search platform.

by Kristina Knight

Net earnings for Q4 hit $1.03 billion ($3.29 per share), including one-time options like stock based compensation. If you take out those one-time options, revenue locked in at $997 million ($3.18 per share). Either way, when you compare Q4 2006 with earnings for Q4 2005 you can see the giant just keeps getting bigger. In 2005, Q4 earnings topped out at $372 million ($1.22 per share).

Total revenue in Q4 grew to $3.2 billion, compared with $1.92 billion the year before, a 67% increase. Earnings for Google AdWords paid keywords were $1.9 billion, an increase of $900,000 over 2005, while Google AdSense brought in $1.1 billion, up almost $300,000 from Q4 2005.

Don't look for earnings to drop in 2007. New initiatives like the possible creation of an outdoor digital network, selling radio time and the success of their newspaper ad program could spell even more success for the search giant in 2007.

During a conference call with analysts, Google CEO Eric Schmidt, said more content partnerships, like the MySpace program, could be launched in '07. "Our partnerships are growing very nicely. . .MySpace, Apple, Samsung, China Mobile, others we haven't mentioned--all doing well, with many more content partnerships coming in 2007."