Google quarterly earnings top estimates

The Internet search giant Google on Thursday released its third fiscal quarter earnings report, posting strong numbers that beat analysts' estimates. The Mountain View, California-based company reported revenue of 9.72 billion U.S. dollars for the quarter ending Sept. 30, 2011, an increase of 33 percent on a year-on-year basis. Google reported a profit of 2.73 billion dollars, compared to 2. 17 billion dollars in the same period last year. The earning per share, excluding certain items, is 9.72 dollars, topping the average estimate of 8.74 dollars per share polled by Thomson Reuters. "We had a great quarter," said Google co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Larry Page in a statement. "Google+ is now open to everyone and we just passed the 40 million user mark. People are flocking into Google+ at an incredible rate and we are just getting started." Many analysts took the third quarter to examine the company's progress towards expanding its core business beyond advertising which accounted for 96 percent of its revenue last year. In the past quarter, Google made major investments in several key businesses, such as social networking and mobile. In August, Google announced a 12.5-billion-dollar acquisition of Motorola Mobility, a move widely seen to get Motorola's patent portfolio to protect its Android software against a growing number of infringement lawsuits by rival mobile platforms. The deal is expected to close later this year or early next year. Since its late-June launch, the Google+ social network has been receiving a good response, posing to shake up the social networking space dominated by Facebook. In September, Google also officially launched Google Wallet, a mobile payment allowing users to pay by tapping an Android smartphone against a compatible card reader.