Google said second-quarter earnings were $5.01 a share, down 28% from a year ago, with revenue rising 21% to $26 billion. Excluding the one-time charge, Google said it earned $8.90 per share.
Google recognized the non-deductible $2.74 billion European Union fine in its results, lowering profit. A year earlier, Alphabet earned $7 a share on sales of $21.5 billion.
Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters expected Alphabet to report profit of $4.47 per share, reflecting the EU fine, on sales of $25.64 billion for the period ended June 30. Excluding the EU fine, consensus estimates had been $8.25 per share.
Google’s traffic acquisition costs (TAC) were higher than expected.
TAC rose 28% to $5.09 billion. Analysts had estimated TAC of $4.74 billion, up 19% from $3.97 billion a year earlier. Rising TAC costs could be tied to renewal of a search deal with Apple (AAPL).