Google's profits soared 28 per cent in this year's opening quarter, overcoming the competitive and legal threats that its internet empire is facing amid an economy roiled by a global trade war. The numbers released Thursday by Google parent Alphabet Inc. indicated the company is rising to the challenge so far, but investors are likely to remain concerned about the turbulent times ahead. The Mountain View, California, company earned USD 26.5 billion, or USD 2.15 per share, during the January-March period, up from USD 20.7 billion, or USD 1.64 per share, at the same time last year. Revenue rose 12 per cent from last year to USD 96.5 billion. The results easily exceeded analysts' projections, according to FactSet Research. Alphabet's stock gained more than 3 per cent in extended trading after the numbers came out. The shares had fallen by 16 per cent since the end of last year. Google's first-quarter performance illustrated the continuing power of its long-dominant search engine in a
Alphabet is considering moving part of its Pixel phone manufacturing from Vietnam to India to serve US markets, as tariffs make Vietnam less competitive
The deal, which may be announced as soon as Tuesday, would be Alphabet's largest acquisition to date, and could help Alphabet's Google catch up with Microsoft Corp. and Amazon.com Inc
Biden administration officials said those posts contained dangerous misinformation, but Republicans have argued it was an attempt to censor conservatives' speech
The retrenchment comes in the wake of slower growth from Google's cloud business, as well as massive spending aimed at supporting the tech giant's ambitions in AI
Chegg is now considering a sale or take-private transaction as a result, the company's CEO Nathan Schultz said on Monday
Indonesia joins India, Russia and the European Union, who have all imposed significant fines on the tech giant for alleged unfair competitive business practices
Prosecutors will seek to show Google must take several measures, including selling its Chrome web browser and potentially its Android operating system, to restore competition in online search
Applying artificial intelligence to the search business that made Google a household name remains the largest gambit for the company, CIO Ruth Porat said
Google said in a filing Wednesday that US District Judge James Donato's ruling is mistaken and asked that the outcome of the long-running litigation be set aside
Antitrust officials, along with states that have joined the case, also plan to recommend Wednesday that federal judge Amit Mehta impose data licensing requirements
Dorsey ordered Apple to return ownership of the apps to the US units. A lawyer for an Indian firm that had been wrongly given ownership of the apps unsuccessfully tried to persuade Dorsey
A total of 17 Russian television channels, including state-affiliated outlets, have filed legal suits against Google after it began blocking channels in 2020
As its main search business matures, Google is betting on growth from its cloud division, which supplies computing power, software and services to other companies
Digital investments have helped propel Malaysia's economy this year, with growth beating market expectations in the last two quarters and the ringgit currency becoming one of Asia's top performers
A break-up order could come at a later stage if Google continues its anti-competitive practices, they said, pointing to a precedent setting case involving Microsoft two decades ago
Those advertising tools contributed to the more than 75 per cent of Google's $307.4 billion in revenue last year that came from advertising.
Google is intensifying its focus on India with the introduction of advanced AI tools aimed at breaking down language barriers and enhancing agricultural practices, a senior company official said. Abhishek Bapna, Director of Product Management at Google DeepMind, highlighted the importance of reducing language barriers in India's economic development. Language is very essential for economic development. For instance, a language barrier should not hinder someone from explaining their medical issues to a doctor or accessing banking services, Bapna said during his short visit to IIM Calcutta. The tech giant has launched Google Gemini, formerly known as Bard, an artificial intelligence chatbot that supports more than 40 global languages, including nine Indian languages. Bapna added that Google's ongoing focus is on continuously improving language quality and expanding support for more Indian languages in the future. Currently, the chatbot supports nine Indian languages - Hindi, Bengali
Agreements under scrutiny include Microsoft's partnerships with startups such as OpenAI, Inflection AI, and Mistral AI, as well as Alphabet's ties to other smaller companies such as Anthropic and Cohe
The tech giant is also providing cloud-computing services to fast-growing startups, fueling consistent profitability for that business after years of losing money