Google Slides Past Gatekeepers (GOOG)

Google Inc. (NASDAQ: GOOG) is out with its first quarter earnings report. The search and online ad giant posted earnings at $5.16 EPS and $4.07 billion in ex-TAC revenues.  Estimates from Thomson Reuters were $4.93 EPS and $4.08 billion in revenues.  The individual metrics were as follows:

When you add in Traffic Acquisition Costs to ex-TAC, the total revenues were $5.51 billion.

-Traffic Acquisition Costs, or revenues shared with Google’s partners, decreased to $1.44 billion in Q1-2009; down from $1.48 billion in the Q4-2008. TAC as a percentage of advertising revenues was 27% in the first quarter of 2009, compared to 27% in the fourth quarter of 2008.
–Google-owned sites generated revenues of $3.70 billion, or about 67% of total revenues.
–Paid click growth was up 17% annually and 3% sequentially.
–Partner sites generated revenues, through AdSense programs, were $1.64 billion, or 30% of total revenues.
–International revenue was 52% of Google revenues, or $2.88 billion.
–Google’s headcount was listed as 20,164, down 58 employees.

There was a WSJ report that the company was close to launching YouTube pacts with movie studios.  The company added about $2 billion to cash, and it ended the quarter with $17.8 billion.

We had estimated that options traders were looking for a move of up to 8% in the stock in either direction.  Shares closed up 2.4% at $388.74 and are currently trading up around $410.00 in the initial after-hours reaction.

JON C. OGG