Google 10-Q Reveals Rewards, Risks of Being Google

Google just released its SEC form 10-Q filing. For the six months ended June 30, 2007, Google had revenues of $7.535 billion vs. $4.7 billion during the same period a year ago. During the past six months Google has completed 10 acquisitions for $183.6 million or $18 million on average. Revenues for 2007 (so far) are approximately divided as follows: 52 percent U.S., 15 percent U.K. and 33 percent rest of world.

Among the traditional parade of risks and vulnerabilities are the following:

• We compete internationally with local information providers and with U.S. competitors who are currently more successful than we are in various markets, and if we fail to compete effectively in international markets, our business will be harmed.
• Proprietary document formats may limit the effectiveness of our search technology by preventing our technology from accessing the content of documents in such formats, which could limit the effectiveness of our products and services.
• New technologies could block our ads, which would harm our business.
  If we fail to detect click fraud or other invalid clicks, we could face additional litigation as well as lose the confidence of our advertisers, which would cause our business to suffer.

• Index spammers could harm the integrity of our web search results, which could damage our reputation and cause our users to be dissatisfied with our products and services.
• If we were to lose the services of Eric, Larry, Sergey or other members of our senior management team, we may not be able to execute our business strategy.
• We rely on highly skilled personnel and, if we are unable to retain or motivate key personnel or hire qualified personnel, we may not be able to grow effectively.
  More individuals are using non-PC devices to access the internet, and versions of our web search technology developed for these devices may not be widely adopted by users of these devices.

• Our business depends on continued and unimpeded access to the internet by us and our users. Internet access providers may be able to block, degrade or charge for access to certain of our products and services, which could lead to additional expenses and the loss of users and advertisers.
• More individuals are using non-PC devices to access the internet, and versions of our web search technology developed for these devices may not be widely adopted by users of these devices.

Google’s push for open wireless spectrum and WiMax deals is explained to some degree in light of the final two risk factors.

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About The Author

Greg Sterling

Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor to Search Engine Land, a member of the programming team for SMX events and the VP, Market Insights at Uberall.