Google Announces Stellar Fiscal Year 2004

The leading search engine Google Inc. (www.google.com) announced Tuesday financial results for the quarter ended December 31, 2004.

Google, based in Mountain View, California, went public in mid-August.

Google reported record revenues of $1.032 billion for the quarter ended December 31, 2004, up 101% year over year. The search engine reported its revenues, consistent with GAAP, on a gross basis without deducting traffic acquisition costs ("TAC"), or the portion of revenues shared with our partners.

According to the report, the income from operations, on a GAAP basis, was $303 million, or 29.4% of revenues for the quarter ended December 31, 2004 compared to $86 million or 16.9% of revenues for the prior year's quarter.

Some Wall Street analysts use non-GAAP measures to analyze our operating results. For instance, they may subtract traffic acquisition costs of $378 million from revenues of $1.032 billion to arrive at a net revenues amount.

Net income on a GAAP basis in the fourth quarter of 2004 was $204 million or $0.71 per share on a diluted basis based on 285.9 million weighted average shares outstanding.

Net cash provided by operating activities for the twelve months ended December 31, 2004 totaled $977 million as compared to $395 million last year, an increase of 147%.

For the Q4 financial results, the revenues in the quarter totaled a record $1.032 billion, representing a 28% increase over the third quarter of 2004 and a 101% year-over-year increase.

The revenues growth is estimated to reflect strong traffic and monetization growth in the quarter. The results are reported also to be due to the growing of the search engine as an advertising medium.

The revenues generated on Google's partner sites, through AdSense programs, contributed $490 million, or 48% of total revenues, a 92% increase over the Network revenues generated in the same quarter last year.

Net income on a GAAP basis increased to $204 million or 19.8% of revenues in the fourth quarter of 2004 as compared to $27 million or 5.3% of revenues in the fourth quarter of 2003.

Google reported the growth through 2004 is reflected both in our domestic business and internationally, both on Google owned sites and on the Google Network.

Google executives attributed the growth also to the number of partners in the network in both the AdSense for Search and the AdSense for Content programs.

Sales from Google's own site more than doubled, to $530 million, accounting for 51 percent of revenue, the company said.

Google remains the most popular search engine with 35% market share.