Punctuating the struggles of most sellers of digital advertising in the current climate, Google parent Alphabet reported an 8% drop in ad revenue at YouTube in the fourth quarter.
Google’s struggles in all ad categories dragged Alphabet earnings below expectations. On a per-share basis, they slipped to $1.05 from $1.53 in the year-ago quarter.
Analysts had expected profit of $1.19 a share. YouTube, which has seen a boom in overall viewing and growth in its extensions in short-form video and pay-TV, posted ad revenue of $7.963 billion, compared with $8.633 billion in the prior-year period.
Total revenue of $76.05 billion fell about a half-billion dollars short of analysts’ forecasts. It inched up 1% over year-ago levels, or 7% when foreign-currency fluctuations are excluded.
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