Google can be threatened with one falling apart after losing two antitrust issues, but in the meantime it can comfort itself with piles of money.
Alphabet, the parent company of Google, posted results with a big profit jump on Thursday. The net result for the first quarter was $ 34.54 billion, an increase of $ 23.66 billion a year earlier.
However, much of that increase stemmed from investments in shares, not from operations. It is still money, but less exciting for investors and analysts. Google shares modest in trade in the trade after the news was released.
Turnover was $ 90.23 billion for the quarter, an increase of 12 percent compared to a year earlier. That was slightly better than the consensus prediction of $ 89.15 billion. The income from the activities increased by 20 percent, better than expected.
Sundar Pichai, the Chief Executive of Google, said in a statement that the results “reflect healthy growth and momentum throughout the company.” When he and other managers were questioned in a conference call about how the potential much Rockier went for second quarter, they said it was too early to tell.
The Mountain View, California, the company also said that it gave a share purchasing of $ 70 billion permission and increased its dividend 5 percent. Google introduced a dividend last year.
The tech giant started a nauseous start in 2025, with his shares at a certain point of almost 25 percent compared to a peak in February. One reason was the economic unrest caused by President Trump's zeal for rates. The Chinese e-commerce companies Temu and Shein, for example, are important advertisers on Google. With a trade war between China and the United States, they buy fewer advertisements.
Analysts said the results can prove to be a highlight for the year. “Google registered strong numbers for a possible storm last quarter,” wrote Yory Wurms, main analyst at Emarketer, in a research memorandum.
Another obstacle for Google: artificial intelligence. A quick evolution in the search was led by AI, which gives Google new competitors such as OpenAi and Perplexity.
During the Call Conference, Mr Pichai emphasized that Google's own companies are doing well. “There has been a lot of momentum,” he said. AI overviews, a new form of Google Searching, has 1.5 billion users per month.
And then there are the antitrust losses. In August, a federal judge discovered that Google had an illegal monopoly for online searching. The correct remedy is now being argued in court. This month another federal court ruled that Google had a monopoly in its online advertising technology.
Of course, Google promises to combat antitrust cases until it wins, but some analysts claim that it might be better to proactively break out. The past gives this vision some encouragement.
The government has pursued IBM for 13 years, from 1969 to 1982, until the antitrust case was finally dropped. IBM has never regained its dominance. Researchers argued that it might have been better for the company if it had settled and was free to innovate. The same argument is applied to Microsoft. The software company prevented its own apart from an antitrust case in 2001, but it also seemed to block for ten years.
Google's growth is delayed, an inevitable consequence of its size and success. In the early years, sales rose routinely by 50 percent or 100 percent as the internet of the consumer experienced a manic growth phase. That was when Google became a verb. Now it is much too big to grow fast.
Mr Pichai did not mention the antitrust cases in his prepared comments about the call and no analysts asked them. Which does not mean that they think the problem will disappear.
“We think that the company may be obliged to change its business practices and pay fines,” wrote Dave Heger, senior communication service analyst at the broker Edward Jones, in a research memorandum.
The changes in operations are still indefinite, but Google could afford to pay almost any fine. Anat Ashkenazi, the financial director of Alphabet, said that the company had terminated the quarter with $ 95 billion in cash and tradable effects.
To put that number in perspective, when Google was made public in 2004, the full value of the company was only a quarter of them – or $ 23 billion.
