A few announcements of the past month have lead to a huge drop in Google’s share prices. Since the start of the year, over 30% has been knocked off the share prices. Does this point to the first stumble of a falling giant or a change in the movement in the goliath of media?

Google has been said to have been disappointed on their fourth quarter earnings coming in 3% below the projected growth. The fact that analysts projected 55% and Google achieved a whopping 53% is not enough. In terms of progression, Google is now a victim of its own successes. No one ever expects Google to plateau and certainly not to dip.

ComSource released figures showing January ad clicks in the US fell compared with the previous year. This has rocked the boat, regardless of the 13% increase in December and the 27% increase in November. Surely with the current financial climate, all areas should be given a little lea way.

As investors look into Google as a company more and the changes taken place over the past 2 -4 years, they see a higher risk investment than previously expected. Google’s staff numbers been increasing faster than it’s revenue, up to a very heavy to carry 17,000 employees.

While the info does not paint a very good picture, this is clearly a consolidation period. The search market is moving in a different direction. Google are one of the strongest placed to capitalise on the emerging mobile market. The R&D cost on Android, the mobile platform, will take quite some time to work off, but without it they could have been left out in the cold. This is by no means a rosy time for any business, but Google are well prepared for the mobile future.

Bookmark to: