Tech giants report higher profits - some more than others

But US Justice Department is now seeking to throw a monkey wrench into Google's financial gears in a recently filed lawsuit that accuses the company of abusing its dominance of search to boost its profits and stifle competition Facebook said Thursday its third-quarter profit and revenue continued to grow along with its worldwide user base, but looking ahead to 2021 the company predicted a “significant amount of uncertainty.” Facebook earned USD 7.85 billion, or USD 2.71 per share, in the July-September period.

Five technology giants are reporting earnings Thursday, providing the latest indication of whether they are rebounding from an economic slowdown earlier this year. The results come a day after the CEOs of Facebook, Google and Twitter testified before the Senate Commerce Committee, rebuffing accusations of anti-conservative bias and promising to aggressively defend their platforms from being used to sow chaos in next week's election.

Apple and Google's parent Alphabet is also reporting results Thursday. Google's corporate parent Alphabet returned to robust financial growth during the summer. In the previous quarter, it suffered its first-ever quarterly decline in revenue amid the economic slowdown stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic.

The company's revenue for the July-September period rose 14 percent from the same time last year to USD 46.2 billion. Its profit soared 59 percent to USD 11.2 billion, or USD 16.40 per share. Both figure easily surpassed analyst estimates, lifting Alphabet's stock price by 9 percent in Thursday's extended trading after the numbers came out. The rebound, as usual, was propelled by the ad spending that has established Google has one of the world's most proficient moneymaking machines. But US Justice Department is now seeking to throw a monkey wrench into Google's financial gears in a recently filed lawsuit that accuses the company of abusing its dominance of search to boost its profits and stifle competition Facebook said Thursday its third-quarter profit and revenue continued to grow along with its worldwide user base, but looking ahead to 2021 the company predicted a "significant amount of uncertainty." Facebook earned USD 7.85 billion, or USD 2.71 per share, in the July-September period. That's up 29 percent from USD 6.09 billion, or USD 2.12 per share, a year earlier. Revenue grew 22 percent to USD 21.22 billion from USD 17.38 billion.

Analysts were expecting earnings of USD 2.18 per share on revenue of USD 19.80 billion, according to a poll by FactSet. The Menlo Park, California-based company's stock slipped USD 7.83, or 2.8 percent, to USD 273 in after-hours trading after the results came out. The stock had closed up nearly 5 percent at USD 280.83.

The social media giant's average monthly user base was 2.74 billion as of September 30, up 12 percent from a year earlier.