Google soars $66 higher after hours thanks to earnings report

Strong Android activations and higher ad rates helped Google report better than expected earnings for the second quarter. The company made $2.5 billion in the three month period compared with $1.84 billion earned in the same period last year, a 36% increase. That works out to profits of $7.68 per share vs. $5.71 a year ago. Google said that if not for costs covering employee stock, the figure would have been $8.74 per share which beat the average analyst estimate of $7.84 a share. Revenue set a record of $9 billion for the quarter. Thanks to the report, Google's stock soared over 12% higher for a gain of $66 to trade at $595.69 in after hours trading.

As we reported, Google's new CEO, Larry Page, has said that the company activated 550,000 Android devices a day and the company estimates that there are 135 million devices globally that use Android. While Google books no revenue from the actual use of the open source operating system by manufacturers, it does get paid royalties for certain patents and for disseminating ads on the platform. And Google's new Facebook-like social network called Google Plus has already snagged 10 million users in its first two weeks, even though it requires an invitation to enter. Facebook has 750 million members, in comparison.

CEO Page, who replaced a tech icon in Eric Schmidt, summed up the goal at the Mountain View based company when he said, "All of us at Google want to create services that people in the world use twice a day, just like a toothbrush."

source: Google via Yahoo