Google & Microsoft Earnings Slide, Falling Demand?
Both Google & Microsoft reported their earnings today. Both search engine companies missed analyst’s estimates bringing up more question about how much the slowing economy is weighing on the search engine market.
Google fell $49.70 (-9.3%) to $473.74 as of 9:35PM PST. Microsoft slid $2.14 (-7.8%) to $25.37.
The missed targets brings up the concern that searchers are spending less online and the effect of the economy on the technology industry as a whole. Google reported a slowdown in the growth of consumers clicking on their online ads. Eric Schmidt said that Google faces “a more challenging economic environment” for the first time in a while. Though some technology companies, most notably Intel Corp, was able to beat estimates, the entire technology sector was brought down by the slow reported earnings.
Google also reported a higher than expected increase in research as their spend rose 65 percent which cut into their profits. Administrative expenses also rose 49 percent partly due to their fight against Viacom Inc.
LeadQual as a whole is starting feel the impact of the economy as many clients are curbing their spend or targeting higher ROI at the expense of volume. As LeadQual’s clients range across numerous industries, we see that some sectors such as real estate are hit the hardest while others like B2B continue to remain more steady. Though marketing dollars are being cut, many companies do end up allocating a larger percentage of their budget to SEM because it’s a medium that is fully trackable and easy to measure.
Paul Lee
Director of Online Marketing
LeadQual - Search Engine Marketing
Tags: Earnings, google, LeadQual, Microsoft, News, Search Engine Marketing
