Google in upbeat mood in Killarney

KILLARNEY, CO KERRY: Three chartered trains and at least six private planes descended on the Kingdom this morning. The mini-invasion of young shiny happy people attired in jeans and t-shirts was not the vanguard of some new religous movement. Google has come to town.

Thousands of Google employees, or Googlers as they like to call themselves, are in the south west for Engage 09, a sales conference for staff from the Europe, Middle East and Africa region. The mood is upbeat and not just because Google, which is regularly voted one of the best places to work, has a young and vibrant workforce that it takes good care of.

Last week the internet giant, which now spans everything from mobile phones to a nascent PC operating system that will pit it squarely against Microsoft, as well as its core search engine, posted strong growth in third quarter revenues and profits. Revenues for the three months for the beginning of July to the end of September were up 7 per cent on 2008’s figures at $5.9 billion and net profit was up 27 per cent to $1.64 billion.

The approximately 2,500 Googlers, who are providing an Autumn revenue injection to the Brehon and Glen Eagles hotels in the Kerry town, will also be buoyed that their employer is now firmly an international player. The third quarter figures show that 53 per cent of revenues now come from outside the US. The €3.1 billion of international revenues announced on Thursday last was an increase of 19 per cent. The firm, which employs about 1,500 staff in Dublin at a European operations centre, doesn’t break out country by country figures, except for the US and British markets. Sales in Britain were down one per cent but while the company blamed that on foreign exchange fluctuations and weak macro economic conditions its conference call with analysts suggested it was the former rather than the latter that did the damage.

Despite this slight blip on an otherwise upbeat announcement, Eric Schmidt, chief executive proclaimed “The worst of the recession clearly behind us and because of what we have seen we now have the confidence to be optimistic about our future and we’re going to invest as a result, and that I think is ultimately good for the long term of Google.”

Schmidt is in Killarney (having reportedly piloted his own plane here), along with his global head of sales Nikesh Arora, to address the assembled Googlers. I’m attending a media round table with him this afternoon and the results of the interview will appear in tomorrow’s paper.