Google’s profits rose sharply in the first quarter, to $2.89 billion, with CEO Larry Page saying the company is seeing “tremendous momentum from the big bets we’ve made in products like Android, Chrome and YouTube.”
The search giant also announced an unusual plan to implement what amounts to a stock split, outlined in a letter to shareholders by Page and co-founder Sergey Brin. Under the plan, the company will create a new class of non-voting capital stock, distributed through a dividend to existing Google shareholders.
Page and Brin write in their letter, “It’s effectively a two-for-one stock split—something many of our investors have long asked us for. These non-voting shares will be available for corporate uses, like equity-based employee compensation, that might otherwise dilute our governance structure.”
They added, “We believe that it will provide great competitive strength—insulating Google from short-term pressures, whatever the source, for a long time to come, while also giving us more flexibility around equity grants.”
More coverage: MarketWatch and Business Insider.
