Research archive for GOOG

YouTube announced plans to insert adverts on Shorts, its service which aims to compete with TikTok. The streaming giant said that ad sales will be shared with creators of the bite-sized videos. Chief Product Officer Neal Mohan said, "We want YouTube to be the place that gives creators the greatest support in the digital landscape."

A few days ago Paul wrote about a time, some years ago, when the market underappreciated Apple. Then it enjoyed a massive rerating, and a lot of shareholders made good money. I feel like Alphabet (parent of Google and YouTube) is in the midst of a similar phase, oddly unloved.

Google's parent company, Alphabet, reported a second-quarter top line that met analysts' expectations, showing how resilient the internet giant's business model is amid all the macroeconomic pressures that are weighing on the digital ads market. The shares rose as much as 5.7% in after-hours trading before cooling off to 4.9%.

Like Amazon last month, Alphabet (parent of Google) has done a stock split. This will reflect in your portfolio as of 18 July. The ratio is also 20-for-1. For every one share you owned, you now own 20 Alphabet shares. The value of your shares is divided by 20, so there is absolutely no change in the value of your holding.

The UK antitrust watchdog is investigating Google on suspicions that it may be abusing its dominant position in online advertising. The Competition and Markets Authority (CMA) is concerned that Google may be favouring its own ad exchange services, while taking active steps to exclude the services offered by rivals.

There are a lot of things one can say about Google, the company. Here's one: they had results out recently and it's my job to tell you about the numbers. Here's another: Google is a money-making, near-monopoly that is the gateway to the Internet, and you're nuts if you don't own their shares.

Google announced that it would let Spotify use its own billing system for users who subscribe to the music-streaming service through the Google Play Store. This means Spotify doesn't have to pay the hefty 15% levy as Google slowly opens up its app store, and is a step in the right direction in order to appease angry regulators. As a Spotify shareholder, I approve!

Alphabet (Google) announced that it has reached a deal to buy a cyber security company called Mandiant for around $5.4 billion. The deal will bolster their cloud business with increased cybersecurity offerings at a time when companies are experiencing waves of attacks on their systems. This deal is the second-largest in history for Alphabet after the Motorola Mobility deal which cost the company a cool $12.5 billion.

Google's parent Alphabet had results out on Tuesday night that were very, very good. That sent shares up to a new all-time high in trading on Wednesday, above $3 000 per share. They closed up 7.5% on the day.

Alphabet (Google) announced that it will invest about $700 million to buy 1.28% of Bharti Airtel. An additional $300 million will be available to grow the company's infrastructure over the next five years.

Google has confirmed that it acquired Israeli cybersecurity startup Siemplify in an effort to add security orchestration, automation, and response (SOAR) capabilities to its cloud business. The transaction will set Google back by $500 million which is a blip in the ocean for a company with over $169 billion in cash.

Alphabet's market cap crossed the $2 trillion mark for the first time yesterday, joining Apple and Microsoft in this exclusive club. I have to mention that all three companies are part of the Vestact model portfolio. What's even more mind-blowing is that Alphabet only hit the $1 trillion mark in January last year, making it the fastest to go from $1 trillion to $2 trillion.

Last night Alphabet, the parent company of Google, Android and Youtube released third-quarter results. As expected, the numbers were impressive. Revenues came in at $65 billion, 41% higher than this time last year. Net income came in at $19 billion, up 68% versus the comparative period. Wow!

Yesterday, Google Cloud announced a new feature that provides its users with custom carbon footprint tracking, to track the emissions their cloud usage generates. This is the first step towards being carbon-free, a goal that Google Cloud has set to achieve in the next decade.

The big tech companies are the largest and most profitable businesses around at the moment. It means that they are easy targets for lawyers and regulators. If lawyers can get even the smallest allegation to stick, it could result in large and very public fines. Currently all of these companies are involved in numerous court cases around the world.