Citigroup’s Mark Mahaney has published a report analyzing the competitiveness of Google’s non-search products, such as Finance, Gmail, Calendar, News, Froogle, Video, etc. The success of such products is obviously important for Google’s long-term outlook, as they should help lock in users and diversify Google’s usage patterns. Eventually, they might even contribute revenue, although this …
To hear people talk about Google’s moves into offline media, you would think the company is on the verge of capturing all the profit in the media industry. It isn’t. And not just because Google’s success in its offline efforts is far from guaranteed. The important point is that Google’s radio, TV, and print initiatives …
Read moreWill Radio, TV, and Print Save Google’s Growth Rate? No.
Anyone know? I’m still struggling with how the company can be spending 2x as much in CAPEX as its closest competitor, Yahoo!, as well as with where all that money could be going (CAPEX estimates are around $1.3 billion this year). At the Analyst Day, CEO Schmidt referred to the company making several “big bets.” Rumor has …
TechCrunch, AP, et al, are reporting that Google just invested $3.9 million in a biotech start-up run by Sergey Brin’s wife. The company, 23andMe, immediately used this money to pay back a $2.6 million loan Sergey had personally extended to the company. For several reasons, this transaction is bizarre. First, given the obvious conflicts of interest (perceived or …
Google is getting better at communicating, and this quarter’s 10Q sheds some light on one of the most pressing questions about the company: Where all that CAPEX is going. The 10Q provides a breakdown of some $332 million in Q1 CAPEX, and although this doesn’t quite tie to the $344 million on the cash flow …
So the big story these days is that Google and Microsoft are going to war and that either could win. This is a big story because it’s a great story: two undefeated heavyweights preparing to bash each other’s brains out. Alas, it’s also fiction. Despite ten years of effort, vast technological and financial resources, and …
The readers have spoken. In the last day, approximately 25 Internet Outsider readers have entered the Google Earnings Sweepstakes. I have eliminated one outlier that seemed preposterous (famous last words) and averaged the rest. Here’s what we’ve learned: IO Reader Google Q4 Net Revenue estimate: $1.379 Billion IO Reader Google “Next Morning Open” prediction: -0.006% The average Net …
As Google’s recent gyrations have illustrated, the stock is now firmly in the thrall of fear and greed. Down 9% one day. Up 5% the next. Up 2% at 10am. Down 2% at 11am. “Eighty times free cash flow–We can’t take the risk!” “Biggest opportunity in the history of the world–We can’t afford to miss …
The early brouhaha about an “earnings miss” seems overblown, because much was attributable to the company’s gift of $90 million to the Google Foundation and a spike in the tax rate. This said, expenses did jump–sales and marketing especially. Despite the marketing juice, moreover, revenue suffered the first real deceleration in a year, and more …
One of many smart comments/links to the last post re MSN’s deterioration concerned the default search setting for the forthcoming IE 7.0. As the NYT details, Microsoft is embedding a search window in the browser header of 7.0 with MSN as the default search engine (or “Live” or whatever the Microsoft engine is or will be). Google, meanwhile, …