‘The Creepy Line’ director Matthew Taylor discusses Google’s struggle with employee trust.
Google parent Alphabet’s apparent interest in buying wearables firm FitBit loomed over a third-quarter earnings report that fell short of Wall Street’s expectations on Monday.
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Alphabet made a bid of undisclosed size to purchase the company best known for its wearable fitness trackers, Reuters reported earlier Monday, citing sources familiar with the matter. Both companies have declined to comment on the situation. Fellow tech leaders Apple and Samsung each manufacture wearable devices.
The report surfaced just hours before Alphabet reported an earnings miss for the third quarter. The company reported earnings per share of $10.12, below the $12.42 expected according to Refinitiv estimates.
“I am extremely pleased with the progress we made across the board in the third quarter, from our recent advancements in search and quantum computing to our strong revenue growth driven by mobile search, YouTube and Cloud,” Google CEO Sundar Pichai said in a statement. “We’re focused on providing the most helpful services to our users and partners, and we see many opportunities ahead.”
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Alphabet reported quarterly revenue of $40.5 billion, slightly outpacing expectations. The company’s traffic acquisition costs, defined as fees Google pays to place its search engine as the default service on smartphones produced by various companies, were $7.49 billion, or roughly in line with Refinitiv projections.
Alphabet shares initially fell more than two percent in after-hours trading on the earnings miss.
The Google parent reported earnings as it contends with unprecedented scrutiny of its business practices and tension with employees. Federal officials are conducting antitrust probes into Google, Facebook, Amazon and other tech giants.
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Last week, Google employees accused the tech firm of installing a digital surveillance tool they alleged was designed to track and prevent labor-related gatherings in the workplace. Google said the tool was meant to cut down on clutter and prevent event spam.
