ALPHABET POSTS STRONG REVENUE ON MOBILE, VIDEO; SETS BUYBACK
Google parent Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) reported a 20.2 percent rise in quarterly revenue on Thursday, helped by robust sales of advertising on mobile devices and YouTube, and the search company authorized a $7 billion repurchase of its Class C stock. Alphabet, along with Facebook Inc (FB.O), dominates the fast-growing mobile advertising market. Shares of Alphabet, the world's No. 2 company by market value, were up 1.6 percent in after-hours trading. Google has been dogged by concerns about how it would nudge its vast web advertising business toward mobile, but the company's recent performance has reassured Wall Street that the transition is well underway, said analyst Kerry Rice of Needham & Co.