Google - Oh My

Google posted the following numbers yesterday:

Quarterly revenues – $2.25bn, up 79% year over year
Quarterly EBITDA – $1bn – up 86% year over year

Now let’s just take a second to comprehend those numbers.

We are witnessing a business that is approaching $10bn in annualized revenues growing at 80% year over year.

And we are looking at a business with operating margins of almost 50%.

A former colleague at Flatiron, Steve Miller, once asked me what do I look for in business models.  I told him "high margin businesses that can grow rapidly".

If that is the definition of beauty, then Google is the prettiest P&L that I have ever seen.

Earlier this week, Comscore put out the March search market share numbers which showed Google gaining share and the others losing share.  There was a lot of debate about the accuracy of these numbers, particularly from the companies that are shown losing share.

I think the Google quarterly numbers might cause that debate to die down.  It’s clear that Google is a juggernaut right now which is getting harder and harder to compete with.

Enter eBay.  It’s being reported on the WSJ website that eBay is in talks with Yahoo! and Microsoft regarding some kind of alliance to ward of competitive pressure from Google.

Longtime readers of this blog know that I am not a Google lover. I would prefer a market with a more level playing field.  In particular, I’d like to see Yahoo! step up its competitive pressure on Google.

But the only thing I can do this morning is shake my head in wonderment at those amazing numbers.