Google net rises as Web ad leader defies economic gloom

Net income for the third quarter rose to $1.35 billion, or $4.24 a diluted share, from $1.07 billion, or $3.38 per share. Excluding employee stock compensation costs and one-time items, profit rose to $1.56 billion, or $4.92 per diluted share from $1.47 billion, or $4.63 per share, a year earlier.

Revenue, including commissions paid to affiliated advertising sites, totaled $5.54 billion, up 31 percent from the year-earlier quarter but up only 3 percent from the second quarter of this year.

Wall Street was looking for a profit, excluding one-time items and stock option costs, of $4.75 per share, on average, according to Reuters Estimates. Analysts, on average, had expected a net profit per share of $4.11, this data showed.

Analysts, on average, were looking for gross revenue to reach $5.57 billion, according to Reuters Estimates. Forecasts had called for revenue growth to range from 26 percent to 37 percent.

Shares of GOOGLE (GOOG.NQ)surged 10 percent to $388 in after-hours trade following the report, building further on a 4.1 percent gain in regular trading on Nasdaq, when it closed at $353.02 after a seesaw trading day.

(Reporting by Eric Auchard, Gabriel Madway, Alexandria Sage in San Francisco and Yinka Adegoke in New York; Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

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