Google shares soar as second-quarter financial results beat Wall Street estimates

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Google’s Larry Page delivered some unexpectedly good news to Wall Street on Thursday with second-quarter earnings that were far better than what analysts had forecast. Shares jumped 11% to $588.27 on the news.

Page, the Google co-founder who replaced Eric Schmidt as CEO in April, just polished off his first quarter in the job, and he’s already showing that Google is making progress in tapping new revenue in mobile and display advertising.

Google earned $2.5 billion, or $7.68 a share, in the quarter, a 36% increase from $1.84 billion, or $5.71 a share, a year ago, the company said.

Revenue rose 32% to $9 billion. After taking into account Google’s advertising commissions, revenue hit $6.9 billion, also surpassing analyst estimates.

The results should give investors some peace of mind about how Google will fare with Page at the helm.

Page has shunned the spotlight, but behind the scenes, the chief executive of the world’s largest Internet search engine has shaken up its management in a bid to speed innovation, and launched his company’s challenge to Facebook, an effort that analysts say will cost more than $200 million.

He’s also wrestling with regulatory investigations into Google’s business practices, including a broad inquiry from the Federal Trade Commission into whether the company abused its dominance in Internet search to stifle competition.

Google will command 41% of the U.S. online advertising market this year, up from 39% in 2010, according to EMarketer Inc.

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-- Jessica Guynn