Google's Q4 Earnings Rallies Wall Street With $14.5 Billion Revenue Increase

Revenues grew by $14.42 billion in the quarter that ended Dec. 31, 2012, corporate giant Google announced Tuesday.

That signifies an increase of 36 percent year-to-year from 2011 and includes 12.91 billion or 89 percent from advertising and other revenue streams, including from Google, its partners and other sites. This rallied Wall Street as the company posted a per share earning of $10.65 beating analysts' expectations of $10.50 per share, according to Bloomberg News.

"We ended 2012 with a strong quarter," said Larry Page, CEO of Google. "And we hit $50 billion in revenues for the first time last year – not a bad achievement in just a decade and a half."

But the companies operating expenses also rose to $4.81 billion in the fourth quarter of 2012 compared to $3.38 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011.

The Mountain View-based company had $4.67 billion in net cash from operating activities in the fourth quarter compared to $3.92 billion in the fourth quarter of 2011. As of Dec. 31, 2012, cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities the company had a value of $48.1 billion.

The company also grew by 315 employees in a quarter. Figures show its worldwide employee count at 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.

"In today’s multi-screen world we face tremendous opportunities as a technology company focused on user benefit," Page said. "It’s an incredibly exciting time to be at Google."

CBS Local reported that Google's earnings dragged because the acquisition of the former Illinois-based company Motorola Mobility didn't close until 2012 and then Google decided to sell a division of Motorola that makes home cable TV boxes. Both of these transactions have affected the accounting of the quarterly figure.

The earnings report came a day before Cupertino-based Apple announced its less than stellar earnings, also according to Bloomberg News.

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