Google’s transformation into Alphabet looks to have paid off; at least it has according to the new company’s first quarterly earnings report. Alphabet has beaten analyst estimates for its Q4 2015 results, and that has had the knock on effect of sending the company stock price up by six-percent in after-hours trading.
Alphabet’s market capital stood at $550 billion (about RM2.3 trillion), which easily beats Apple’s current capital of $538 billion (about RM2.25 trillion). This makes Alphabet the world’s most valuable company, although it falls short of Apple’s record valuation of $774 billion (about RM3.23 trillion) in February 2015. Apple has fallen from its lofty perch on slowing iPhone and iPad sales, and it will be interesting to see if Alphabet is able to maintain its lead over the premium electronics maker.
Non-Google companies belonging to the Alphabet group lost a massive $2 billion (about RM8 billion) this period of time, but that was expected of them. Referred to internally as “other bets”, these companies are comprised of what were once Google moonshot projects. This includes things like autonomous vehicles, robotics, drones, and a human longevity project.
Interestingly, Verily – which has been working on extending the human lifespan – has been grouped with Fiber and Nest as the only non-Google companies to have made a profit in Q4 2015. Where this came from is a complete mystery, but it is a massive vote of confidence for the company which is working on one of the more unusual projects from Alphabet.
[Source: Alphabet, via Ars Technica]
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