Google managed to bring in gross consolidated revenues of $18.1 billion for the last quarter, a year-on-year increase of 15% and up from the previous quarter's $16.52 billion, according to its latest financial results. Increased traffic acquisition costs (TAC) of $3.62 billion bringing the ex-TAC revenues down to $14 billion. Net income also increased to $4.76 billion from $3.38 billion the same period last year, but the search company failed to meet analyst expectations.
The earnings per share (EPS) was $6.91 for the quarter, an improvement on the $4.95 in the fourth quarter of last year. Analyst expectations pinned Google's EPS at $7.12 per share and with ex-TAC revenues of $14.7 billion. It's net income did get boosted by the final closure of the sale of Motorola to Lenovo, which brought in $740 million.
In advertising, representing 89 percent of its revenues, it saw aggregate paid clicks increase by 14 percent year-on-year, and 11 percent quarter-on-quarter. YouTube engagement advertising and other similar advertising saw yearly and quarterly increases of 25% and 18 percent respectively. The average cost-per-click is down 8 percent, both quarterly and year-on-year.
The cash, cash equivalents, and marketable securities held by Google as of the last day of 2014 totaled $64.4 billion. Globally, Google employs 53,600 full-time staff, a headcount up just over 2,000 from the end of the previous quarter.
The full year revenue for the company is $66 billion, up 19 percent from last year. While impressive, it is notable that this full year figure is in fact lower than the quarterly revenue of $74.6 billion reported by Apple in its results earlier this week.