Google posts another winning quarter despite Motorola losses, calls it ‘a long-term bet’

Google had yet another winning quarter in Q3, bringing home $14.9 billion USD in revenue and $2.97 billion in net income, or $8.75 per share. This represents a 12% revenue increase from this time last year, and a 6% uptick from the Q2 of this year.

While Android is not specifically broken down in its earnings, as the company gives the software away for free and accrues advertising revenue from the use of its mobile services, mobile ad units continue to cost significantly less than their desktop counterparts, dragging down growth throughout the division.

Google’s $12.5 billion Motorola acquisition is still not bearing fruit, as the handset company posted losses of $248 million on revenue of $1.18 billion. A year ago those losses were just $192 million on revenue of $1.78 billion.

While the Moto X was not on sale for much of the quarter, which comprised the period between July 1st and September 30th, it was still available for just over a month. That being said, Google admits to spending a lot of money marketing the product, and Google’s Chief Financial Officer, Patrick Pichette, called the Motorola acquisition a “long-term bet” during today’s earnings call.

According to Motorola CEO, Dennis Woodside, the Moto X is the first in a series of redesigned products. We’re expecting a low-cost Moto X variant to be announced in the coming months, but we wouldn’t be surprised to see the company come out with a revamped tablet line-up in the near future, too.

[source]Google[/source]