Google makes $17.3 billion in revenue in Q1 2015, Nexus sales suffered a “decline”

Google’s Q1 2015 numbers are in, and as usual the company raked in a lot of dough. They were able to amass .3 billion in revenue — which is a 12% increase year-on-year — and .85 billion of that was marked as profit.

Advertising was a big part of that, as usual, with that sector of Google’s business responsible for more than billion of revenue on its own. Google did mark a 23% increase of .8 billion in revenue for their “other” businesses (such as the money they get from Google Play digital and physical sales), though performance 2% dropped quarter-over-quarter.

Google attributed the slight dip to a decline in sales of Nexus devices. While they didn’t get specific, they are likely referring to the fact that the Nexus 6 was available at a high-end price point of 0 which could have deterred more sales than yesteryear’s 0 Nexus 5. It’s still odd considering the Nexus 6 was widely available on major American carriers for financed smartphone payment plans or subsidized contracts.

But the beat goes on as it always has for Google. They’re really not interested in selling more hardware than the next guy. They’re interested in creating great platforms and services that everyone will use so that their major money maker — search and advertising — finds its way into more and more hands. You can check out the full numbers at the jump.

[via Google]

In a strange turn of events, Verizon buys AOL for $4.4 billion

We’re not sure why Verizon would want to buy a company that was once considered a dial-up king and has since turned into a multimedia conglomerate, but they did. Verizon and AOL have entered into an agreement for the former to buy the latter for a whopping .4 billion.

We may joke about being surprised AOL exists and fall back on our nostalgia of “You’ve Got Mail”, instant messages and late night chat rooms, but AOL is still a significantly relevant company in today’s internet. The company commands the likes of TechCrunch, the Huffington Post, Engadget and Joystiq — in case you haven’t realized, these are some of the biggest names in online media, and the entire lot of them combine to drive over 0 million annually.

With Verizon, AOL hopes to strengthen their already potent video, news and advertising platform to drive company growth to new heights. Perhaps not the same heights they enjoyed during the good ol’ dial-up days, mind you, but potent enough for them to be able to pay the bills and then some.

AOL CEO Tim Armstrong made remarks about the acquisition in an internal letter to employees obtained by The Verge. Thankfully none of the fine folks associated with the company will have to worry about losing any jobs. In fact, he expects a vast majority of the company’s employees will see better benefits and compensation than they ever have. He also gave a quick spiel on how the deal would help both them and Verizon in the future:

The decision to enter into an agreement with Verizon was made over a long and thoughtful time period and both companies see significant opportunity to service consumers and customers in a differentiated and exciting way.

On a personal level, the decision to go forward with an agreement was predicated on giving our talent the best opportunity to build a multi-decade business that would be deeply growth oriented and aimed directly at the platform shift that video and mobile are offering the world – today and 20 years from now.

We can’t argue with that. Verizon is as well-positioned as anyone to capitalize on a world that’s going increasingly mobile, and adding AOL to their ranks will give them solid footing to tackle this new age of internet going forward. AOL will remain as its own entity as a division of Verizon and run its current properties and business as they always have. They will also take the reigns on managing and evolving Verizon’s existing video and multimedia properties such as NFL Mobile.

It’ll be a while yet before we see tangible results of the joining of these two companies, but there’s no reason to suggest it won’t bring anything but goodness from both sides.

[via CNN]

Google Hangouts has been pre-installed over 1 billion times

When an application crosses a billion installs on the Google Play Store, it always sounds like a big deal. It’s an illustrious club that few belong to. Apps like Facebook, WhatsApp and more recently, Facebook Messenger, have all joined the 1 billion downloads club and that’s saying something. Most of those apps had to be physically downloaded (not all the time, but mostly) by Android users before they could hit that milestone.

Then there are a handful of Google apps that are also apart of this club. Apps like Gmail, YouTube, Google Maps, and Google Search. You know, the apps that stand in the back of the room with their embroidered blazers, smoking their pipes, telling stories about how they easily joined up because of their family name. These are the apps that already come pre-installed on your Android device before you even take it out of the box. It should come as little surprise to anyone that another app from Google’s software suite is joining that list, with Google Hangouts now crossing the 1 billion downloads mark.

If nothing else, this milestone — which, by the way, means nothing — points a spotlight directly on an app that is in bad need of an overhaul. With more than a billion “installs,” we think it’s time Google finally gives Hangouts a little TLC. Giving the app a new coat of paint with Material design and bringing it up to speed with its iOS counterpart (which has the ability to send video clips) would be a nice start. Can you think of anything else you’d like to see in a Hangouts refresh?

Hangouts (Playboard) | Hangouts (Play Store)