Google’s Incredible Cash Machine

by Paul Greenberg

Google reported Q4 earnings yesterday, and a quick look at their free cash flow underscores again why they are such a successful company.

For the three months that ended December 31, 2012, Google had free cash flow of $3.649 billion. A quick calculation shows that:

$3.649 billion / (24 hours per day x 90 days per month) = $1.7 million in free cash flow PER HOUR.

Looking at the previous Q4:

$3.924 billion in net cash – $951 million in purchase of property and equipment = $2.973 billion in free cash flow. Therefore:

$2.973 billion / (24 hours per day x 90 days per month) = $1.4 million in free cash flow PER HOUR.

Google increased the amount of cash the company throws off every hour by $300,000 per hour. No wonder they can invest in Google Glasses and self-driving cars. What a business.