Alphabet posts lower Q4 profit amid ad squeeze, competition

Google's parent company Alphabet on Thursday posted lower profit and a small revenue increase for last year's fourth quarter, as a decline in online ad spending and competition from rivals weigh on the search giant.

While overall revenue grew, advertising revenue fell by nearly 4% and revenue at YouTube declined 8% year-over-year. That appeared to spook investors, who sent the company's stock lower in after-hours trading.

The company based in Mountain View, California, said it earned $13.62 billion, or $1.05 per share, in the October-December quarter. That's down 34% from $20.64 billion, or $1.53 per share, in the same period a year earlier.

Revenue inched 1% higher to $76.05 billion from $75.33 billion.

Analysts expected Alphabet to post earnings of $1.18 per share on revenue of $76.2 billion for period, according to FactSet Research.

Alphabet, like Facebook parent Meta, Amazon and other tech companies, is navigating a rough economic patch that's especially hurting the online advertising market.

Last month, Alphabet announced it was cutting 12,000 jobs, or about 6% of its workforce. It was the company’s biggest-yet round of layoffs and adds to tens of thousands of other job losses recently announced by Microsoft, Amazon, Meta and other tech companies that are tightening their belts in the face of a darkening outlook for the industry.

In response to the layoffs, Google's unionized workers, members of the Alphabet Workers Union-CWA rallied outside of the company's New York City office during the company's earnings call.

“Alphabet is one of the most profitable companies in the world, and well positioned to weather any economic storm. Yet instead our executives decided to layoff 12,000 of our coworkers, including many on medical or parental leave, as well as many with...