What was thought to be Google’s third-quarter earnings leaked today four hours ahead of schedule. The leak sent the stock falling by 8% and caused trading to come to an abrupt hault. However, a note at the top of the leaked statement read, “PENDING LARRY QUOTE’– causing us to believe that the leaked document was not an official earnings statement. Instead it was a draft of the third-quarter earnings requesting Google CEO Larry Page’s input.
A Google spokesperson emailed Mashable about the leak claiming R.R. Donnelley, the financial printer, was responsible:
Earlier this morning R.R. Donnelley, the financial printer, informed us that they had filed our draft 8K earnings statement without authorization. We have ceased trading on NASDAQ while we work to finalize the document. Once it’s finalized we will release our earnings, resume trading on NASDAQ and hold our earnings call as normal at 1:30 PM PT.
The leaked draft showed third-quarter earnings paled in comparison to those of 2011. At the end of last year’s third-quarter the companies Generally Accepted Accounting Principles (GAAP) net-income finished at $2.73 billion. Today Google’s GAAP closed at $2.18 billion. Wall Street anticipated earnings of $10.63 per share. The actual reported earnings closed at $9.03 a share.
[Via Mashable]
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Claudia McNeilly is an editorial intern at the Toronto Standard. You can follow her on twitter at@claudiamcneilly
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