Alphabet Inc., the public holding company that owns Google was created back in 2015 to help restructure Google and its various divisions, separating them and giving each a unique identity that wasn’t possible under the Google umbrella. Yesterday marked a big moment in Alphabet’s; the company released its fourth quarter earnings of 2015 and results have made it the most valuable public company in the world, a title that was previously held by Apple.
The company brought in $21.3 billion in revenue and earnings of $8.67 per share from its subsidiaries, which include Google, Nest Labs, Google Fiber, etc. Analysts were only expecting earnings of $8.09 on $20.8 billion in revenue. The earnings propelled Alphabet Inc. by 8% to a market cap of $558 billion; Apple sits at $535 billion.
“Our very strong revenue growth in Q4 reflects the vibrancy of our business, driven by mobile search as well as YouTube and programmatic advertising, all areas in which we’ve been investing for many years.”
– Ruth Porat, Chief Financial Officer of Alphabet Inc.
Google’s core businesses (which include YouTube, Google Search and Gmail) have also grown continue to grow as well; the company recently surpassed over 1 billion monthly active users on Gmail. It joins the likes of Facebook which also recently released their Q4 earnings report.
