Google income doubles to €1.03bn

GOOGLE has said fourth-quarter profit more than doubled as the company expanded its lead over Yahoo and sold more advertising outside the US.

Net income rose to $1.03 billion (€790m), or $3.29 a share, from $372.2m, or $1.22, a year earlier, Google said yesterday.

Sales excluding revenue passed on to partners rose to $2.23bn, compared with the $2.2bn estimated by 29 analysts in a Bloomberg survey.