Google Q3 2011: $9.72 Billion In Revenue, $2.73 Billion In Net Income

Welcome to Google’s Quarter Three 2011 earnings results everyone! In Larry Page’s third quarter as CEO, Google is boasting $9.72 billion in revenue ($7.51 billion when you subtract traffic acquisition costs of $2.21 billion), an increase of 33% compared to third quarter of 2010. GAAP net income is $2.73 billion versus $2.17 billion during the same period last year. Google reported $9.02 billion in revenue last quarter, with $2.51 billion in net income.

Analysts were expecting Google to earn $8.74 per share this quarter on a revenue of $7.21 billion according to the WSJ, representing a more than 30% growth from last year. Google surpassed analyst’s expectations on both revenue and EPS, as non-GAAP EPS this quarter were $9.72.

A lot has happened for Google during this quarter, namely its bid to acquire Motorola and pickup and public launch of Google’s social product Google+. The company presently has 31,353 full-time employees and $42.6 billion in cash.

Google’s sales and marketing costs doubled to $1.2 billion in this quarter, from $661 million in 2010. Research and development cost went from $994 million to $1.4 billion. Most interesting item on the ledger? A $500 million charge from the Justice Department regarding pharmaceutical ads.

Stay tuned. I’m sure we’ll hear more context and information around these numbers during Google’s earnings call today at 1:30 PST.