Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is out with fourth-quarter earnings of $10.65 per share, and we caution investors about using the revenue numbers due to the sale of Motorola Home. Sales on an ex-TAC basis came in at $11.34 billion in revenue without including Motorola Home, but $12.16 billion if you include the unit. The consolidated revenues were $14.42 billion for the quarter, but that includes the Traffic Acquisition Costs and on an ex-TAC basis we would tally these up as $12.16 billion. In case the analysts were not able to factor in the ex-operations, it would be $15.24 billion net in sales if you included the Motorola Home sales. Thomson Reuters had estimates of $10.52 EPS and $12.36 billion in ex-TAC revenue.

This was the first Internet giant to report and the stock remains about 10% off of its highs. Look for this to be the benchmark for online ad marketing dollars for Facebook, Yahoo!, AOL and others. Other key numbers:

• Google-owned sites generated revenues of $8.64 billion, or 67% of total Google revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2012. This represents a 18% increase over fourth quarter 2011 Google sites revenues of $7.29 billion.
• Google’s partner sites generated revenues of $3.44 billion, or 27% of total Google revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2012. This represents a 19% increase from fourth quarter 2011 Google network revenues of $2.88 billion.
• Other revenues from Google were $829 million, or 6% of total Google revenues, in the fourth quarter of 2012. This represents a 102% increase over fourth quarter 2011 other revenues of $410 million.
• Google revenues from outside of the United States totaled $6.9 billion, representing 54% of total Google revenues in the fourth quarter of 2012, compared to 53% in the third quarter of 2012 and 53% in the fourth quarter of 2011.
• Aggregate paid clicks, which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of Network members, increased approximately 24% over the fourth quarter of 2011 and increased approximately 9% over the third quarter of 2012.
• Traffic acquisition costs, the portion of revenues shared with Google’s partners, increased to $3.08 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012, compared to $2.45 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011. TAC as a percentage of advertising revenues was 25% in the fourth quarter of 2012, compared to 24% in the fourth quarter of 2011.
• Operating expenses, other than cost of revenues, were $4.81 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012, or 33% of revenues, compared to $3.38 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011, or 32% of revenues.
• Google’s effective tax rate was 18% for the fourth quarter of 2012.
• Net cash provided by operating activities in the fourth quarter of 2012 totaled $4.67 billion, compared to $3.92 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011. As of December 31, 2012, cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities were $48.1 billion.
• On a worldwide basis, Google employed 53,861 full-time employees (37,544 in Google and 11,113 in Motorola Mobile and 5,204 in Motorola Home) as of December 31, 2012, compared to 53,546 full-time employees as of September 30, 2012.

Google closed down 0.2% at $702.87 on the day ahead of earnings and the 52-week trading range is $556.52 to $774.38. The stock is currently trading up about 4% around $730 after the report but we will consider this unfinished business due to all of the exceptions and since the stock has sloshed around after past earnings reports.

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