Google shares suspended after profit results error

Trading in Google shares has been suspended after the internet giant released its third-quarter results early by mistake.

Third-quarter profits fell 20% on a year earlier to $2.18bn (£1.35bn) and below analysts' expectations.

Google blamed financial printing firm RR Donnelley for filing an early draft of the results, which had been expected after the closing bell.

Shares in Google were down 9% when trading in the stock was suspended.

Shares had fallen as much as 10.5% at one stage.

In a statement, Google said: "Earlier this morning RR Donnelley, the financial printer, informed us that they had filed our draft 8K earnings statement without authorisation.

"We have ceased trading on Nasdaq while we work to finalise the document. Once it's finalised we will release our earnings, resume trading on Nasdaq and hold our earnings call as normal at 1:30 PST."

The company's results statement, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, was published at 09:30 Pacific time (16:30 GMT), three and a half hours ahead of schedule.

It says "PENDING LARRY QUOTE" at the beginning, referring to Google chief executive Larry Page and indicating that it was not ready for publication.

Net revenue rose to $11.3bn from $7.5bn, but was still below forecasts.

Including websites that generate traffic for Google's ads, revenue rose 45% to $14.1bn.

The slide in Google's share price took the company's market value back down below that of Microsoft, which it had overtaken earlier this month.

Joe Saluzzi from Themis Trading said "you can't make those mistakes any more".

He added: "Mistake or not, the earnings are earnings. The problem is when this happens in the middle of the day, there is no time for a conference call to massage it, there is no time for analysts' questions and for an evaluation."

Google completed the purchase of the loss-making mobile phone maker Motorola Mobility for $12.5bn earlier this year and has been struggling to turn the firm around.

Costs related to the acquisition - for employee stock compensation and restructuring charges - knocked Google's overall results, as well as the strong dollar.

The company said that if foreign exchange rates had been stable, its revenue would have been $136m higher.