Google reports below expectation financial results following European fine

Google’s latest financial results fell below analyst expectations as the tech giant absorbed a 1.7 billion dollar (£1.3 billion) competition fine from the European Commission.

The firm’s parent company Alphabet reported revenue for the last three months of 36.3 billion dollars (£28 billion), below the 37.34 billion (£28.9 billion) that had been predicted.

Net income was 6.6 billion dollars (£5.1 billion).

Google’s advertising revenue was up on the same period last year, rising from 26.6 billion to 30.7 billion dollars (£23.7 billion). This was an increase of 17%, however, this time last year the firm’s revenue was growing at a rate of 26%.

While revenue from Alphabet’s Other Bets – the collection of smaller, more outlandish companies which includes autonomous car firm Waymo – saw revenues rise from 150 to 170 million dollars (£131.4 million).

However, operating loss for the Other Bets was 868 million dollars (£671 million), up from 571 million (£441 million) a year ago.

“We delivered robust growth led by mobile search, YouTube, and Cloud with Alphabet revenues of $36.3 billion, up 17% versus last year, or 19% on a constant currency basis,” Alphabet chief financial officer Ruth Porat said.

“We remain focused on, and excited by, the significant growth opportunities across our businesses.”

Google’s fine from the European Commission, issued in March, was for “illegal practices in search advertising brokering to cement its dominant market position”.

EC Commissioner for Competition Margrethe Vestager said at the time that by abusing its position, Google had “denied consumers choice, innovative products and fair prices”.