Alphabet Investor Relations

Who should I contact for press related inquiries?

• Reach out to press@google.com.

Can you add me to your email distribution list?

• See the home page of the IR website for new announcements.

Can you send me print copies of your Annual Report?

• Refer to this link.

Can you grant me permission to use your logo or screenshots of your blogs?

• Logos: The Investor Relations team is not able to grant permission for use of our logo. The guidelines and process for obtaining permission to use the Google logo can be found on this page, along with a link to a formal request form.
• Screenshots: See the Google Permissions website for our policies on how to use screenshots under the "Products" tab and this formal request form for additional requests (such as logos).

What’s the difference between Class A and Class C shares?

• Class A stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol GOOGL.
  Class C stock trades on the NASDAQ Global Select Market under the symbol GOOG.
  Class A has one vote per share, while Class C has no voting rights.

How do I convert Class C shares to Class A (or vice-versa)?

• Exchanging or converting shares is not possible. You would have to sell Class C shares and then buy Class A shares.

Does Alphabet pay a dividend?

• We have never declared or paid any cash dividend on our common or capital stock. The primary use of capital continues to be to invest for the long term growth of the business. We regularly evaluate our cash and capital structure, including the size, pace and form of capital return to stockholders.

When did Google split its stock?

• In February 2022, the board of directors of Alphabet approved a 20-for-one stock split in the form of a one-time special stock dividend on each share of our Class A, Class B, and Class C stock (the 2022 Stock Split). In June 2022, our stockholders approved an amendment to our Certificate of Incorporation to increase the number of authorized shares of Class A, Class B, and Class C stock to provide us with enough shares to accommodate the 2022 Stock Split. The 2022 Stock Split has a record date of July 1, 2022 and a payment date of July 15, 2022.
• Previously, in January 2014, the board of directors of Google approved the distribution of shares of Class C capital stock as a dividend to holders of Class A and Class B common stock (the 2014 Stock Split). The 2014 Stock Split had a record date of March 27, 2014 and a payment date of April 2, 2014.

Do I need to take any action to receive my additional shares from the 2022 Stock Split?

• No, your broker will automatically update your account to reflect the new quantity and share price of your stock ownership after July 15, 2022. Please contact your broker with any questions you may have. If you have questions regarding the tax treatment of the stock split, please consult your tax advisor.

A glossary of terms you can find on Alphabet financial statements.

Google Services Segment

• Includes products and services such as ads, Android, Chrome, hardware (including Fitbit, Nest), Google Maps, Google Play, Search, and YouTube. Google Services generates revenues primarily from advertising; sales of apps and in-app purchases, and hardware; and fees received for subscription-based products such as YouTube Premium and YouTube TV

Google Cloud Segment

• Google Cloud includes Google’s infrastructure and platform services, collaboration tools, and other services for enterprise customers
• Google Cloud generates revenues primarily from fees received for Google Cloud Platform ("GCP") services, Google Workspace (formerly known as G Suite) communication and collaboration tools and other enterprise services

Other Bets Segment

• Other Bets is a combination of multiple operating segments that are not individually material
• Includes businesses such as Access/Fiber, Calico, CapitalG, GV, Verily, Waymo and X, among others
• Revenues from the Other Bets are generated primarily through the sale of health technology through Verily and internet services through Access/Fiber

Unallocated

• Unallocated corporate costs primarily include corporate initiatives, corporate shared costs, such as finance and legal, including certain fines and settlements, as well as costs associated with certain shared research and development activities. Additionally, hedging gains (losses) related to revenue are included in corporate costs

Google Services Revenues

• Advertising revenues: Google Search & Other
• Google search properties (including revenues from traffic generated by search distribution partners who use Google.com as their default search in browsers, toolbars, etc.)
• Revenues generated from advertising on other Google owned and operated properties like Gmail, Google Maps, and Google Play
• Advertising revenues: YouTube Ads
• YouTube properties
• YouTube Ads revenues are primarily recognized on a gross basis. Content acquisition costs for YouTube, which are payments to content providers from whom we license video and other content for distribution, are recognized in Other Cost of Revenues
• Advertising revenues: Google Network
• Google Network properties participating in AdMob, AdSense, and Google Ad Manager
• Google Other revenues
• Google Play revenues, which include sales of apps and in-app purchases (which we recognize on a net basis) and digital content sold in the Google Play store. Sales of certain digital content on the Play store are recorded on a gross basis
• Hardware, which includes sales of Fitbit wearable devices, Google Nest home products, and Pixel devices
• YouTube non-advertising revenues, including YouTube Premium and YouTube TV subscriptions
• Other products and services

Expenses

Traffic acquisition costs (TAC)

• Amounts paid to our distribution partners who make available our search access points and services
• Amounts paid to Google Network partners primarily for ads displayed on their properties
• Distribution partners include browser providers, mobile carriers, original equipment manufacturers, and software developers

Other cost of revenues

• Content acquisition costs, which are payments to content providers from whom we license video and other content for distribution on YouTube advertising and subscription services and Google Play (we pay fees to these content providers based on revenues generated or a flat fee). Content acquisition costs also include licensing costs for news from our Google News Showcase product
• Credit card and other transaction fees related to processing customer transactions
• Expenses associated with our data centers (including bandwidth, compensation expenses (including stock-based compensation), depreciation, energy, and other equipment costs) as well as other operations costs (such as content review and customer and product support costs)
• Inventory and other costs related to the hardware we sell

Other

Net payments related to stock-based award activities

• The “Net payments related to stock-based award activities” line in the statement of cash flows primarily reflects employee tax withholding payments related to stock-based compensation

Revenue Backlog

• We have performance obligations associated with commitments in customer contracts, primarily related to Google Cloud, for future services that have not yet been recognized as revenues (“revenue backlog”). This includes related deferred revenue currently recorded and amounts that will be invoiced in future periods, and excludes contracts with an original expected term of one year or less and cancellable contracts

Accounting for prior COVID-19 response efforts:

• Certain of our support efforts in response to COVID-19 are reflected in the financial statements as follows:
• For ad credits or ad grants, there is no revenue recognized in our results when the ad credit or ad grant is used
• Charitable contributions are reflected in general and administrative expenses
• Our investment fund supporting non-government organizations and financial institutions around the world to help provide small businesses with access to capital is recorded on the balance sheet as a receivable and assessed for credit losses on an ongoing basis

Capex

• Our capital investments in property and equipment consist primarily of the following major categories:
• Technical infrastructure, which consists of our investments in servers and network equipment for compute, storage and networking requirements for ongoing business activities, including machine learning, (collectively referred to as our information technology assets) and data center land and building construction; and
• Office facilities, which consists of acquisitions, ground up development projects and related building improvements

Useful Lives of Property and Equipment

• Following summarizes useful lives for property and equipment as of January 1, 2021:
• Buildings depreciated over periods of seven to 25 years
• Server equipment depreciated generally over four years
• Network equipment depreciated generally over five years
• Leasehold improvements depreciated over the shorter of the remaining lease term or the estimated useful lives of the assets
• In January 2023, we completed an assessment of the useful lives of our servers and network equipment, resulting in a change in the estimated useful life of our servers and certain network equipment to six years.

Foreign Exchange

• Foreign Exchange Rates: We translate the financial statements of our international subsidiaries to U.S. dollars using month-end exchange rates for assets and liabilities, and average rates for the annual period derived from month-end exchange rates for revenues, costs, and expenses. An illustrative example:

  FX translation example (for illustrative purposes only)
  October revenues in Euros	€100
  September month-end exchange rate	1.1
  October revenues externally reported translated to USD	$110

• Hedging Framework: Principal currencies hedged included the Australian dollar, British pound, Canadian dollar, Euro, and Japanese yen.

YouTube Music and Premium and YouTube TV subscribers

• YouTube Music and Premium subscribers includes those in trial and all registered members in our family plan. Family plan memberships include one subscriber and up to an additional 5 family members. It does not include YouTube TV subscribers.
• YouTube TV subscribers include trialers. Subscribers exclude additional household members. It does not include YouTube Music and Premium subscribers.

How do you measure the change in valuation of a private equity investment (non-marketable equity security)?

• Under the measurement alternative of US GAAP, we may increase the valuation of a private equity investment when an observable market transaction occurs.
  • For illustrative purposes, if Company A in our portfolio raises capital through the sale of securities at a valuation that is 20% higher than its previous financing round, we may increase the valuation of the holding by 20%.
• We may decrease the valuation of a private equity investment when an observable market transaction occurs. In addition, we also decrease the valuation of a private investment when we determine an impairment exists (the fair value is below the carrying value of the investment).
  • For illustrative purposes, if Company B in our portfolio raises capital through the sale of securities at a valuation that is 20% lower than its previous financing round, we may decrease the valuation of the holding by 20%.

Where does a change in valuation of a private equity investment appear (non-marketable equity security)?

• Gains and losses, including impairments, in private equity investments are reflected in the OI&E line in the income statement.