Alphabet shares sink despite making $8.9bn profit in last quarter

Alphabet, the parent company of the internet search giant Google, earned $39.27bn in the last three months of 2018, but its share price sank as its costs rose. Alphabet's revenues for the quarter were 22% higher than the same period last year and the company made a profit of $8.9bn, the company announced on Monday. Revenues in the US rose 20% while revenues from Europe, the Middle East and Africa rose 29%, helped by the strength of the euro and the pound. It was the latest tech company to announce strong revenue growth – news that has cheered investors – but rising costs that come as the company is facing increasing competition from Amazon clouded the news. The fees that Alphabet pays to companies like Apple for Google to be their default search engine rose to $7.4bn up from $6.6bn for the same period last year.