Google can be threatened with dismantling after the loss of two cases of antitrust legislation, but in the meantime it can be comforted with piles of money.
The alphabet, Google’s parent company, published the results on Thursday that included a big jump in profit. The net income for the first quarter was $ 34.54 billion, from $ 23.66 billion last year.
Much of this increase, however, emerged from investment in shares, not businesses. It’s still money, but less exciting for investors and analysts. Google shares increased moderately in transactions after news circulation.
Revenue was $ 90.23 billion for the quarter, up 12 % since the previous year. This was slightly better than consenting $ 89.15 billion consensus. Business revenue increased by 20 %, better than expected.
Sundar Pichai, Google’s chief executive, said in a statement that the results “reflect healthy growth and impulse throughout the business”. When he and other executives were challenged at a teleconference on how he went in the second quarter, they said it was too early to say.
Mountain View, California, also said it has authorized the $ 70 billion acquisition and increased its dividend by 5 %. Google introduced the dividend last year.
The technological giant began in 2025, with its shares at a point almost 25 % from the top of February. One reason was the financial turmoil caused by President Trump’s zeal for invoices. Chinese e -commerce companies Temu and Shein, for example, are important advertisers on Google. With the trade war that blooms between China and the United States, they buy fewer ads.
Analysts said the results may prove to be a high point for the year. “Google recorded intense numbers in the last quarter before a possible storm,” writes Yory Wurmser, Mr. Emarketer’s analyst, in a research note.
Another obstacle for Google: Artificial Intelligence. There is a rapid evolution in the search guided by AI, which gives new Google competitors such as Openai and Purplexity.
Mr Pichai stressed during the teleconference that Google’s businesses were doing well. “There was a great momentum,” he said. AI offenses, a new Google search format, have 1.5 billion users per month.
And then there are losses of antitrust legislation. In August, a federal judge found that Google had an illegal monopoly on electronic search. Proper treatment is now supported in court. This month, another federal judge decided that Google had a monopoly on electronic technology advertising.
Google, of course, is committed to combating antitrust cases until it achieves victory, but some analysts argue that it may be best to break down. The past gives some encouragement to this view.
The government followed the IBM for 13 years, from 1969 to 1982, until the antitrust case eventually fell. IBM never regained its sovereignty. The researchers argued that it might have been better for the company if it had been installed and was free to innovate. The same argument applies to Microsoft. The software company prevented its own dismantling appealing to an antitrust case in 2001, but this seemed to stop for a decade.
Google growth slows down, an inevitable consequence of its size and success. In its early years, revenue usually increased by 50 % or 100 percent as the consumer internet went through a phase of manic growth. This was when Google became a verb. Now it’s too big to grow up quickly.
Mr Pichai did not mention cases of antitrust legislation in his prepared observations on the call and no analyst asked them. This does not mean that they believe that the problem will go away.
“We believe that the company may be forced to change its business practices and could pay fines,” wrote Dave Heger, a senior communications analyst at Brokerage Edward Jones in a research note.
Changes in functions are still unspecified, but Google could afford to pay almost every fine. Anat Ashkenazi, chief financial director of the alphabet, said the company had finished in the quarter with $ 95 billion in cash and marketable securities.
To put this number in perspective, when Google was released in 2004, the whole value of the company was only a quarter of it – or $ 23 billion.
