Google (GOOG:Nasdaq - news - research) posted a blowout fourth quarter Tuesday.
For the quarter ended Dec. 31, the Mountain View, Calif., Internet media giant earned $204 million, or 71 cents a share, up from the year-ago $27 million, or 10 cents a share. So-called net revenue, excluding the fees the company pays its search-engine advertising partners, jumped to $654 million from $517 million a year ago.
Using the road map laid out by Google to exclude the costs of stock-based compensation, as Wall Street analysts prefer to, Google earned 87 cents a share in the latest quarter. The Thomson First Call analyst consensus estimate had the company making 77 cents a share.
"Google had an exceptional quarter. Revenues and profits increased significantly, our execution was solid across the company and most importantly, our relationship with our users, partners and advertisers became even stronger," said CEO Eric Schmidt. "All of this happened while we continued to innovate, expand around the world and make strategic, long-term investments."
Traffic acquisition costs, the portion of revenues shared with Google's partners, fell to 77% of Google Network revenue in the latest quarter from 85% a year ago.
In after-hours trading, Google leaped $10 to $201.89.
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