Comments on: New Economy http://wir-sprechen-online.com/2008/10/17/new-economy/ Sun, 27 May 2012 05:00:34 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.com/ By: Gerrit Eicker http://wir-sprechen-online.com/2008/10/17/new-economy/#comment-877 Fri, 17 Oct 2008 07:59:16 +0000 http://wirsprechenonline.wordpress.com/?p=2634#comment-877 AdAge: “Eric Schmidt was quick to explain that Google was still trying to keep costs down. ‘It makes sense given everything we read in the papers,’ he said. He didn’t specifically address whether Google would scale back some of the non-core investments and experiments it has made over the past several years but seemed to imply that was the case. He called the economic slowdown ‘a great focusing opportunity’ for Google and said that search – Google’s core business – is where much of the investment is going. A specific question on the retail vertical was left largely unanswered. ‘There’s so much uncertainty now in the financial markets, the press and potential government action, that it’s very, very hard for us to give you a sense of what’s going to happen in retail or any other category between now and the holiday season,’ Mr. Schmidt said. – Google’s chief economist, Hal Varian, repeated the theory that a recessionary environment has an upside for Google because ‘as people shop more carefully, they’re going to be researching the things they buy’ – via Google, presumably. – Yet other reports indicate weakness in retail and e-commerce. A study from search-technology provider SearchIgnite found that while overall year-over-year third-quarter spend was up almost 27%, retail spending on search advertising was up just 1.5% and actually declined as the quarter wore on.”

pC: “As I was listening to the call, I traded emails with Mark May, an analyst at Needham & Co., who noted that he wasn’t surprised that Google’s stock was trading up over $20 in after-market trading. ‘The key driver for strong results in my view are i) strong search query growth (18% YoY), ii) UK market doing better than feared, iii) meaningfully lower spending levels, both in terms of hiring (unseasonally low hiring for a 3Q) and significantly lower capex ($452MM vs est of $820MM); and iv) ability to offset negative impact of strong dollar w/ currency hedging.’”

ClickZ: “Despite strong fundamentals – including the 31 percent Q3 revenue increase and traffic growth in most verticals – Google executives said the company had seen some impact of the global storm on its business. Among the negative effects is softness in the U.K. market and in several expectedly weak verticals, including mortgage financing, auto financing, and real estate.”

NYT: “Still, many analysts cut their revenue and profit expectations for Google in recent weeks, amid signs that the slowing economy would affect advertising budgets both online and offline. And some analysts say they believe that Google’s strong results in the third quarter are not necessarily indicative of future performance.”

WP: “Todd Greenwald, senior analyst for Signal Hill Research in Baltimore, said the true test of Internet firms’ resilience lies ahead. – ‘There has already been a ton of pain’ in the Internet sector, he said, citing the 14 percent drop in eBay’s shares this week, and a 15 percent slide for Amazon.”

]]>