2015.07-Google-Was-U
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OUR VALUES THE PEOPLE THE NEWS CONTACT US Google was up 16% on Friday, reaching a new all-time high. It was the first earnings call with the new CFO, Ruth Porat, former CFO at Morgan Stanley from 2010 to 2015. She obviously told what Wall Street wanted to hear: Google can grow and innovate while improving its profitability and shareholder return. To some extent, the message echoes Mario Draghi's promise to do "whatever it takes" to save the euro. While these are just words, the message was clear enough to instill confidence in investors. And we think that investors are right: hiring a high-profile executive such as Ruth Porat shows that Google's CEO, Larry Page, is serious about shareholder value and margin expansion. It is likely that Page came to the conclusion that it was time for change now that Google is a large, more mature company versus the early years of fast growth when investors were merely "tolerated". Moreover, Google has a ways to go with respect to cost control, which we believe is still low hanging fruit for the company at this time. This is something we fully anticipated. Google is one of many companies shaping the future of the digital world among many others such as Amazon, Criteo, Demandware, Facebook, Salesforce.com, They have one thing in common: their main growth driver is not macro-related, but instead driven by the pace of digital transformation, which we expect to remain strong for some time to come. Written on July 20, 2015 by Benoît Flamant CIO of FOURPOINTS IM. Disclaimer: This document does not constitute or form part of an offer to issue or sell, or of a solicitation of an offer to subscribe or buy, any securities nor does it constitute a financial promotion, investment advice or an inducement to participate in any product, offering or investment. The expectations expressed about companies, the market, the economy and other factors represent the opinion of the FOURPOINTS IM and may not be realised in the future. .