FILE - In this Tuesday, Oct. 4, 2016, file photo, Google CEO Sundar Pichai speaks during a product event in San Francisco. Pichai has declared artificial intelligence more important to humanity than fire or electricity. And yet the search giant is increasingly having to deal with messy people problems: from the need for human checkers to catch rogue YouTube posters and Russian bots to its efforts to house its burgeoning workforce in pricey Silicon Valley. (AP Photo/Eric Risberg, File)
Alphabet Inc, a company that has sunk billions into far-fetched projects like driverless cars and Internet balloons, is being weighed down by more mundane expenses – the cost of running its behemoth web-search advertising business.
Google’s parent company reported fourth-quarter profit that missed analysts’ estimates, hobbled by rising payments for search and ad distribution to companies like Apple Inc, as well as higher marketing expenses tied to its own line of devices during the holiday quarter. Alphabet also posted a US$9.9bil (RM38.49bil) hit to earnings related to taxes owed on overseas cash following recent changes to US law. The shares fell about 2.2%.
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