On Friday's installment of Investor Beat, host Alison Southwick and Motley Fool Million Dollar Portfolio lead advisor Ron Gross take a look at some of the biggest blockbuster stories from this earnings season, to see who popped, and who dropped.
Google (GOOGL 0.55%) shares are up today after the company announced Q4 earnings last night. The company mostly met analysts' expectations, though it missed on earnings per share, partly due to the lagging Motorola. Google did announce, however, that it will be selling Motorola to Lenovo, something Ron sees as a positive, selling off a business that was a distraction rather than core to Google's mission. He doesn't see the sale as something that will radically drive share prices upward.
The big story here was Google's stock split, announced in 2012, and now finally clearing litigation. Rather than a traditional 2-for-1 split, the split will create a new class of shares, class C, which will act just like class A shares, but with no voting rights for class C shareholders. Google has been criticized for the move, which some see as a way for Brin and Page to retain control over the company, and investors have expressed concern that the two classes of shares will trade at different rates. Ron discusses the split, and how class C holders will be compensated if the disparity between class C and A shares becomes significant.
