Google's shares crash on poor Q3 figures

Trading in Google shares halted on Nasdaq after earnings figures released early

Trading in Google shares was halted today on Nasdaq after poor earnings figures were released - apparently prematurely.

The search firm blamed financial print service provider RR Donnelley for releasing its quarterly earnings figures a few hours early. The results had not been expected until after the closing bell. RR Donnelley shares also fell 6 per cent on the news.

Following the announcement, which gave earnings of $14.10bn (£8.74bn) in revenue, and earnings per share at $6.53 (£4.05), Google shares fell about 8 per cent almost immediately, declining to 13 per cent below their starting point shortly afterwards.

The release detailed Q3 earnings for 2012 at $2.74bn (£1.7bn), or 19 per cent of revenues, which compares unfavourably with a figure of $3.06bn (31 per cent of revenues), for Q3 2011.

Net income was also down around 20 per cent on a year-on-year basis, coming in at $2.18bn (£1.35bn) this quarter.

Analysts believe that the poor figures may be laid at the door of Motorola, now owned by Google, which reported an operating loss of $527m (£327m), it's Mobile Mobility division being responsible for the vast majority of that fall.

Google acquired the mobile phone company for $12.5bn (£7.7bn) in August 2011 as it looked to leverage Motorola's handset-making expertise for its Android platform, while also acquiring thousands of its patents. In August 2012 it was announced that 4,000 jobs would be lost at the phone maker.