Shares of Google parent Alphabet drop 6% after disappointing ad revenue
NY Post
Alphabet disappointed Wall Street on Tuesday as holiday season advertising sales came in below expectations and overshadowed the company’s efforts in artificial intelligence and the cloud.
Shares fell 6% in after-hours trade.
Alphabet has faced tough competition for ad budgets from other online platforms such as Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and Amazon, alongside mixed economic signals in the US.
Ad revenue in the fourth quarter was $65.5 billion, up from $59.0 billion in the year ago quarter but short of the average analyst expectation for $66.1 billion, according to LSEG data.
“Alphabet’s disappointing ad revenue numbers suggest that corporations worldwide are still uncertain about the pace of interest rate cuts from global central banks,” commented Thomas Monteiro, senior analyst at Investing.com.
Google, inventor of foundational technology for today’s AI boom, also faces tough competition from the two players that have captured the business world’s attention, ChatGPT’s creator OpenAI and its financial backer Microsoft.
