Logo
BusinessBusiness

Larry Page has hit his stride.

Page, in his second act as CEO, reported earnings from his first full quarter that surpassed most Wall Street expectations.

The tech titan’s co-founder took the helm at the end of last quarter and didn’t put in a commanding performance during the previous quarterly analyst call, when he spoke only 370 words. That left Wall Street uninspired and sparked investors’ concerns about the seemingly aloof chief.

Yesterday, Page had a lot more to say, and also let Google’s revenue and user numbers do the talking. Investors gave a rousing cheer, sending the firm’s stock up 13 percent, or $66.58, to $595.52 in after-hours trading, a four-month high.

“We set a new record for quarterly revenue at over $9 billion,” said Page, who touted his management changes since taking over that have put a renewed focus on products and established a clearer line of responsibility.

The co-founder also made his company’s social initiatives his top priority and tied compensation to the success of those efforts, which included launching Google+ to compete with Facebook.

Page confirmed for the first time that even in its testing phase, and barely two weeks old with limited public access, the social network had more than 10 million users who were sharing more than a billion times a day. He also said the company’s mobile efforts were progressing with 550,000 Android activations a day.

The boost in users and initial success in social media, which heretofore has been a tough area for the company, have some analysts saying Google could be a growth company again. But increased expenses for new ventures are piling up, which concerns investors focused on profit margins.

Total revenue was $9.03 billion, up from $6.82 billion a year ago. Excluding commissions paid to partners, revenue rose 21 percent to $7.92 billion. gsloane@nypost.com

Comments
anonymous profile image
Powered by RoundtableBuilt on infrastructure designed for real-time media. Learn more at RTB.io.© Roundtable 2026. By using this site you agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy