Google this afternoon released its Q3 earnings during a conference call with investors. This quarter, which ended September 30, the leader in search market share made $1.35 billion or $4.24 per share. This represents a 26% increase from this point last year when the company made $1.07 billion, or $3.38 per share.
“We had a good third quarter with strong traffic and revenue growth across all of our major geographies thanks to the underlying strength of our core search and ads business,” said Eric Schmidt, CEO of Google. “The measurability and ROI of search-based advertising remain key assets for Google.”
Google’s revenue was $5.54 billion, up 31% from 2007. Google-owned sites generated revenue of $3.67 billion, or 67% of total revenue. This is a 34% increase over the third quarter of 2007.
Operating expenses, other than cost of revenue, were $1.63 billion in the third quarter of 2008, or 29% of revenue, compared to $1.64 billion in the second quarter of 2008.
GAAP net income for the third quarter of 2008 was $1.35 billion as compared to $1.25 billion in the second quarter of 2008. Non-GAAP net income was $1.56 billion in the third quarter of 2008, compared to $1.47 billion in the second quarter of 2008.
As of September 30, cash, cash equivalents and marketable securities were $14.4 billion. Google employed 20,123 full-time employees as of September 30, up from 19,604 full-time employees as of June 30.
Schmidt also commented on how the economic climate is affecting the company.
“While we are realistic about the poor state of the global economy, we will continue to manage Google for the long-term, driving improvements to search and ads, while also investing in future growth areas such as enterprise, mobile and display,” he said.
