68% drop in income reported by Google

The fourth quarter results posted by Google didn’t prove much impressive as it was before but still the company showed relatively good performance as compared with its peers in present economy turmoil. With that Google’s fourth quarter revenue rose 18% to $5.7 billion which is the first time when its quarterly revenue growth has been less than 30 percent since its IPO in 2004.

For the quarter ended in December Google recorded an income of $382 million, or $1.21 per share. That was a 68% decline as compared with the same period in 2007. The crisis made Google to write down most of its $1.5 billion investment in two troubled companies, AOL and Clearwire Corp. 

After deduction of commissions paid to its ad partners, Google's revenue stood at $4.22 billion, which is about $100 million above analyst estimates.

Now Google is allowing its 20,222 employees to swap their outstanding stock options for new ones that will carry a lower exercise price, giving the workers a better chance of making money from the options. The move is ascribed to a 47% drop in Google's stock price over the past year, leaving about 17,000 employees holding options that are "under water" and can't be cashed in now at a profit.