Big Tech including Apple, Facebook reports mixed earnings amid pandemic

Washington: Big Tech companies reported mixed quarterly earnings on Thursday, a day after their top executives faced a tough congressional grilling over their market power and alleged monopolistic practices.

The staggering economic fallout caused by the coronavirus pandemic was reflected in reports released Thursday from Amazon, Facebook, Apple and Google's corporate parent, Alphabet.

Apple delivered surprisingly strong numbers with both its revenue and profit rising, defying analysts' lowered expectations. The iPhone maker's revenue rose 11 per cent to nearly USD 60 billion while profit rose 12 per cent to USD 11.3 billion.

Alphabet, Google's holding company, reported its first-ever drop in quarterly revenue compared to the prior year. Although it was only a 2 per cent decline, it was a telling sign of a downturn in the digital ad market while also serving as a reminder that the economy is struggling even more than it did more than a decade ago during the Great Recession Google's low point during that time came during the second quarter of 2009 when its revenue edged up by just 3 per cent.

Alphabet's profit for its most recent quarter plunged 30 per cent to nearly USD 7 billion.

Facebook, which also makes most of its money from digital ads, recorded an 11 per cent increase in revenue from the prior year, the social networking company's slowest growth since going public eight years ago. The company's profit nearly doubled to roughly USD 6 billion from the same time last year. Part of the big jump stemmed from special charges last year.

Amazon was a pandemic winner, with people stuck at home relying on the company to shop online. It reported record quarterly profit, doubling to USD 5.2 billion from last year while its revenue soared 40 per cent to USD 88.9 billion.