Q4 Growth in YouTube, Play Offsets Declines in Alphabet's Hardware

Google hardware revenue fell in Q4 vs. the “fairly strong” hardware growth rate in the year-ago quarter, said Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat on parent Alphabet’s Monday earnings call. A “difficult hardware comparison” included the launch of the Pixel 3 last year, Wedbush analyst Michael Pachter wrote investors Tuesday. Overall revenue grew 17 percent to $46.1 billion, below analysts' consensus of $46.94 billion. Revenue in the “other" line -- Google Play, hardware and YouTube's Premium, Music and TV subscription offerings -- rose 10 percent to $5.3 billion, due to growth in YouTube and Play, offset by declines in hardware, said Porat. Google’s “other bets” had a $2 billion operating loss, vs. a $1.3 billion loss, said the company. Pachter noted in other bets that Alphabet “has the luxury of funding its experiments” in artificial intelligence, “self-driving cars, high speed Internet and various new hardware initiatives while continuing to generate growing losses.” He’s “skeptical that many of these initiatives will pay future dividends.”