Google’s hefty $2.7 billion “anti-competitive practice” fine was one of the biggest stories last quarter, however, even that couldn’t deter the company from turning a profit during the period.
The company made $26 billion in sales over the quarter, on the back of which it made a $6.87 billion profit. Or so it would have made without the fine, which reduced the operating income to $4.1 billion, which is less by around a quarter compared to last period. It’s still a very respectable figure however you look at it.
Revenue Statistics
The revenue it makes on cloud services is of particular interest, with major deals tripling over the last year. The combined business of the “others” column grew by $3.1 billion. As for its experimental division, the revenue went up by a third to $248 million, while losses declined to $772 million.
The revenue it makes per click on search advertising went down by 23-percent, though. Its employee count also increased by 9,000 over the last year.
Google’s global digital ad revenue is expected to climb by nearly one-fifth to $73.75 billion by the end of this year.
Anti Competitive Fine(s)
The anti-competitive fines were imposed after the European Union questioned why Google favors its own shopping service in search results to gain a competitive advantage over its rivals. Google can still appeal the ruling – which was the biggest in EU history, dwarfing Intel’s $1.08 billion fine – within the first 90 days of ruling, which came late last month.
For the future, it could very well be hit with another penalty via antitrust violations regarding its licensing of Android applications, as well as the partnering of AdSense with select “direct partners”. The potential list of penalties number as high as 35, which would surely cause a sizable dent on Google’s reserves and image.
