谷歌一季度業績低於預期 股價大跌

Google is in trouble with European regulators. Wall Street is not thrilled with it either.

谷歌(Google)與歐洲監管機構矛盾不斷。華爾街也對其興致索然。

The Silicon Valley company, which reorganized itself into a holding company called Alphabet last year, fell short of earnings and revenue forecasts on Thursday when it reported first-quarter results.

週四公佈今年一季度業績時，去年重組成名爲Alphabet的控股公司的谷歌，利潤和營收均不及早前的預測。

Revenue was up 17 percent to $20.26 billion. Net income was $4.2 billion, with earnings excluding certain items coming in at $7.50 a share, compared with analyst expectations of $7.96.

今年一季度收入202.6億美元，增加17%。淨收益42億美元，除去特定項目的每股盈利爲7.50美元，低於分析人士預期的7.96美元。

As soon as the news was out, the stock fell $40, or about 5 percent.

消息一出，公司股價下挫40美元，跌幅約爲5%。

One culprit for the disappointing report: aggregate cost per click, a crucial measure of Google’s advertising business, fell 9 percent from 2015.

業績令人失望的一大元兇是：作爲谷歌廣告業務關鍵的衡量指標，平均每點擊成本比2015年下降9%。

Nearly all of Alphabet’s revenue and all its profits come from the core Google search and advertising business. Revenue from what the company calls “Other Bets” was $166 million, more than double what it was in the first quarter of 2015. But losses for Other Bets rose to $802 million from $633 million.

Alphabet幾乎所有收入和全部盈利都來自核心的谷歌搜索和廣告業務。源自“其他賭注”的收入爲1.66億美元，比去年同期增加一倍多。但其他賭注的虧損也從6.33億美元升至8.02億美元。

Aside from the troubles in Europe — antitrust authorities there said this week that the company was unfairly using its Android mobile software to promote its products over those of rivals — the last year has been generally sweet for Google fans.

歐洲反壟斷機構本週表示，Alphabet利用其Android移動軟件推銷自身的產品，不正當地打壓競爭對手。不過，拋開在歐洲的麻煩，去年總體上對谷歌的追捧者來說相當甜蜜。

The company brought in Ruth Porat from Morgan Stanley as chief financial officer, a sign it wanted to rein in spending. The results for the second quarter of 2015 offered evidence that the core advertising business was succeeding on mobile, igniting one of the largest one-day jumps in capitalization for a Nasdaq stock ever. A reorganization in the fall that separated the core business from the ambitious “moonshots” was met with approval by investors and analysts.

該公司從摩根士丹利(Morgan Stanley)挖來了露絲·波拉特(Ruth Porat)擔任首席財務官。這一跡象表明它想控制開支。2015年二季度的業績證明，核心的廣告業務正在移動端取得成功，促成了納斯達克史上名列前茅的市值單日增幅。去年秋天，公司將核心業務和雄心勃勃的“登月”項目分離，而這一重組得到了投資者和分析人士的一致支持。

Euphoria cannot last forever, though, and recently some headaches have emerged. An inability to release new products has plagued an acquisition, the thermostat company Nest. Bought for $3.2 billion in early 2014, Nest has struggled to expand its product line amid corporate infighting.

但歡樂不會永遠持續下去，最近便出現了一些令人頭疼的問題。無法發佈新產品的情況困擾着被其收購的溫控器企業Nest。這家公司於2014年初被谷歌以32億美元納入旗下，卻因企業內鬥而無力擴充產品線。

Another question hanging over Google is its ventures in cloud computing. This is the growth market where Amazon is far ahead and Microsoft is mounting an aggressive challenge.

籠罩在谷歌頭頂的另一個問題是其在雲計算領域的嘗試。在這個成長型市場，亞馬遜(Amazon)遙遙領先，微軟(Microsoft)也正在發起咄咄逼人的挑戰。

Google is far behind at No. 3, or perhaps even No. 4 after IBM, said John R. Rymer, an analyst at Forrester Research. Last fall, Google hired Diane Greene, an industry veteran, to run all of its cloud businesses.

弗雷斯特研究公司(Forrester Research)的分析師約翰·R·裏默(John R. Rymer)稱，谷歌遠遠落後，目前處在第三位，甚至是IBM之後的第四位。去年秋天，谷歌請來業內資深人士戴安·格林(Diane Greene)負責所有云業務。

“This is their third try to really become a cloud powerhouse,” Mr. Rymer said. “They certainly seem more serious this time, but we’ll have to see if they move beyond digital natives to airlines, utilities, trucking companies, governments — the enterprises where the real money is.”

“這是他們第三次嘗試真的變成一個雲巨頭，”裏默說。“這一次他們看上去的確更認真，但他們是否會從數字原住民發展到航空、電力、載重汽車運輸、政府這些真正賺錢的領域，還有待觀察。”