Google reported first-quarter revenues of $15.42 billion, up by 19 per cent from a year earlier. The figure excludes traffic acquisition costs, which totaled $3.23 billion, or 23 per cent of advertising revenues. Operating profit rose to $4.12 billion from $3.75 billion a year ago, while the margin fell to 27 per cent from 29. Net profit increased to $3.45 billion or $5.04 per share, from $3.35 billion or $4.97 per share in the first quarter of 2013.
Motorola’s results were recorded as discontinued operations, pending the sale of the handset business to Lenovo. Motorola contributed a net loss of $198 million for the quarter.
Google generated operating cash flow of $4.39 billion in the first quarter, while investing $2.35 billion in capital equipment. The company finished March with cash of $59.38 billion. Google added another 3,000 employees in the quarter, for a total of just under 50,000, excluding Motorola.