Google last night reported quarterly results which beat Wall Street forecasts.
Investors have been stunned by a series of dismal reports from Microsoft, Intel and other high-tech companies.
Google said fourth-quarter net profits fell to $382m, or $1.21 a share, from $1.21 billion, or $3.79 a share, a year earlier. This was due to impairment charges on its investments in Clearwire and AOL. Excluding once-off charges, profit was $5.10 a share, ahead of the average analyst forecast.
Revenue rose 18% to $5.7 billion - well below the 50% growth levels Google previously enjoyed, but considered a robust performance given the weak economy and corporate cutbacks in advertising spending. The company employs 1,500 people in Dublin.
Google-owned sites, like google.com and google.co.uk generated 67% of revenue. Traffic acquisition costs, the portion of revenues shared with Google's partners, fell.
Chief executive Eric Schmidt struck a cautious note, saying the last quarter had benefited from the holiday season when many users were seeking retail bargains online.
