Google To Add Info To Financial ReportingGoogle To Add Info To Financial Reporting

Google Inc. on Thursday said it would add information outside of generally accepted accounting principles to its quarterly earnings announcements, in order to prevent confusion with Wall Street analyst reports.

Companies often report so-called non-GAAP figures, in order to present a different side of the business not reflected in GAAP numbers. Financial analysts often base their projections on non-GAAP figures.

Google, based in Mountain View, Calif., decided to include non-GAAP earnings per share, because Wall Street analysts would typically describe the company's results in those terms, Mark Fuchs, the company's chief accountant, said on Google's blog.

"That resulted in some confusing apples-to-oranges analyses of our results," Fuchs said. "By providing both, we hope it will be easier to understand our results."

Google, which reviews non-GAAP results when it analyzes its own performance, plans to begin releasing the information with its Oct. 20 earnings announcement, Fuchs said.

Earnings per share, based on GAAP, are calculated by dividing profit by the number of a company's outstanding shares. To calculate non-GAAP earnings-per-share, companies add back to net income certain charges, such as for stock-based compensation, and divide that by the number of outstanding shares.