Google's Q4 revenue soars to $12.91 billion

PanARMENIAN.Net - Google's revenue climbed 22 percent to $12.91 billion in the fourth quarter, TheWrap reported citing Reuters.

The search giant consolidated its revenue to include the $14.42 billion in earnings from its Motorola Mobility mobile phone company.

The quarterly revenue posting did not include money from Motorola's television set-top business, which Google recently agreed to sell.

“We ended 2012 with a strong quarter,” Larry Page, CEO of Google, said in a statement. “Revenues were up 36 percent year-on-year, and 8 percent quarter-on-quarter. And we hit $50 billion in revenues for the first time last year – not a bad achievement in just a decade and a half."

However, the average cost-per-click, Google metric for the price advertisers pay for ads on the site, fell 6 percent from last year. That marked the fifth consecutive quarter of decline in price.

But Google's core business generated a net revenue of $9.83 billion in the fourth quarter, besting the same quarter last year, which came in at $8.13 billion.

And Motorola phone business suffered an operating loss of $353 million during the quarter.

"In today’s multi-screen world we face tremendous opportunities as a technology company focused on user benefit," Page said. "It’s an incredibly exciting time to be at Google.”