Alphabet by the Numbers – Q4 2017 Earnings report – A $3 billion loss but bigger hardware sales

During their earning call today to report their results for Q4 2017, Google, or rather Alphabet released results which showed the company had a rough fourth quarter reporting a $3 billion dollar loss, but had the bonus of reporting better hardware sales.

Alphabet’s $3 billion loss was due to $9.9 billion tax hit, which they said was primarily ‘due to the one-time transition tax on accumulated foreign subsidiary earnings and deferred tax impacts’. For the 2017 year though the company still managed a net income of $12.7 billion. Ruth Porat, CFO of Alphabet summed it up saying

Our business is driving great growth, with 2017 revenues of $110.9 billion, up 23% year on year, and fourth quarter revenues of $32.3 billion, up 24% year on year. Our full year operating income growth continues to underscore our core strength, and on top of this, we continue to make substantial investments for the long-term in exciting new businesses,

While a loss in the fourth quarter was a hit for the company, during the earnings call, Google CEO Sundar Pichai reported that they more than their hardware sales numbers in 2017 over the 2016 year with tens of millions of devices, which includes Chromecasts, Google Home (Mini + Max) speakers and Pixel devices sold. The hardware category saw revenue of $4.69 billion, a 38% over last year.

Interesting numbers for Google include:

• Google currently has $100.8 billion on hand in cash and cash equivalents including marketable securities.
• Alphabet increased their staffing levels with the headcount rising from 78,101 staff in Q3 2017 to 80,110 in Q4 2017.

You can view the earnings call on YouTube here: