Google today announced financial results both for Q4 2013 and the entire fiscal year that ended December 31, 2013. Q4 revenues came in at US$16.86 billion with a profit of US$3.38 billion. Advertising remains Google’s main revenue driver and paid clicks were up 31% over 2012 even as the cost per click fell 11% over the same period. But hardware sales and the Google Play store are also starting to provide solid contributions to the bottom line as well.
“We ended 2013 with another great quarter of momentum and growth. Google’s standalone revenue was up 22% year on year, at $15.7 billion”, said Larry Page, CEO of Google. “We made great progress across a wide range of product improvements and business goals. I’m also very excited about improving people’s lives even more with continued hard work on our user experiences.”
On the analyst call that followed, Google CFO Patrick Pichette described the Nexus 5 as a “very strong” performer but did not provide any specific sales numbers. The Chromecast was another strong seller for Google.
On the other hand, the Motorola business lost US$384 million in Q4, up substantially from the US$248 million it lost the previous quarter. The mounting losses may well help explain Google’s decision to sell Motorola to Lenovo for US$2.91 billion.
The company now holds US$58.72 billion in cash and equivalents and has 47,756 full-time employees (43,862 in Google and 3,894 in Motorola Mobile).
Source : Google