Google by the numbers – Q2 earnings report

Yesterday, Google announced their Q2 earning report. The numbers look fairly good from the outset, however it proved to be less than what investors were looking for so the share price fell a little on Wall Street.

So, what numbers are we looking at from Google this time around – figures are in USD :
Revenue is up for Google who reported overall revenue for Q2 of $14.11 billion – 19% up on last year – with a total Net income of 3.23 billion compared to $2.79 billion in the second quarter of 2012. Motorola Mobile however had an operating loss of $342 million based on revenue of $998 million.

Larry Page who was directing the actual sales call announced the figures for Android activations as well as the status of Google Play :

We’ve now activated more than 900M Android devices worldwide–and we’re lighting up over 1.5M devices every day. That’s pretty amazing given the first Android phone launched less than five years ago.

And apps usage is increasing fast. Over 50BN apps have now been downloaded from the Google Play store. In fact, we’ve already paid out more money to Android developers this year than in the whole of 2012.

The amount of Android devices activated – 1.5 million per day – has remained unchanged for 3 months, the trend so far for Google announcing activation figures has been upwards and this is the first ‘stagnation’ to date. 900 Million devices is also the same as it was 3 months ago, however these figures could be a slight mis-direction, with Google intending to announce 1 Billion devices activated at their July 24th event.

The major worrying trend here is Motorola. Motorola is still bleeding money from the mothership, however the upcoming Moto X is building some good buzz as the first Google influenced handset to release after Google purchased Motorola in May last year. Google has continued to ‘trim the fat’ at Motorola announcing via their report that from 9,982 employees of Motorola Mobile last year, they now only have 4,599. With less employees and a promising flagship coming soon, Motorolas fortunes in Q3 could possibly turn around, we will have to wait and see.

Either way, Google still has a reported $54.4 billion cash in the bank and are still earning real money from their ad business. The real question is, what will happen with Motorola which has been a fairly big drain to date, exactly how long can Google continue to prop them up for or will the Moto X be the Motorola saviour?