Google's quarterly report continues to astound with 77% revenue growth

Mountain View (CA) - When will Google cease to be an anachronism from the ’90s, and become a regular company that reports growth rates of nice, round figures like 12% ? Not very soon at this rate. For its fiscal second quarter, the company reported earnings of $2.46 billion, up 77% on an annual basis, with operating income of $815 million.

Google’s own sites earned the lion’s share of that amount : $1.43 billion, versus what was then an astounding $737 million in Q2 2005. Revenues that partners helped generate through Google’s extended AdSense program generated nearly an additional billion dollars. Earnings per share was reported at $2.33, up from $1.95 in Q1 2006.

All of which, of course, was bad news for after-hours traders, as analysts picked apart the numbers to find that Google pays more in commissions to its partners than it expected, despite the fact that earnings came in $20 million above street estimates. At last check this evening, share prices were trading down more than 3%, or more than $11 per share.

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