Google announced a long-awaited stock split Thursday as it reported first-quarter revenues of $10.65 billion, a 24 percent increase over its $8.58 billion in sales a year ago.
Profits rose to $3.39 billion from $2.3 billion in the first quarter of 2011.
"Google had another great quarter with revenues up 24 percent year on year," said Google chief Larry Page.
"We also saw tremendous momentum from the big bets we've made in products like Android, Chrome and YouTube. We are still at the very
early stages of what technology can do to improve people's lives and
we have enormous opportunities ahead," he added.
The stock split is designed to reward current shareholders while allowing the founders to retain their voting control of the company, which has allowed them to focus on long-term growth. Under the terms
of the proposal, which was unanimously approved by the board, shareholders will receive one newly created non-voting share for each current share they own.
The new shares will trade under a separate ticker symbol and will be issued to stockholders tax free, Page announced in a letter together with co-founder Sergey Brin.
"We recognize that some people, particularly those who opposed this structure at the start, won't support this change - and we understand that other companies have been very successful with more traditional governance models," the founders said.
"But after careful consideration with our board of directors, we have decided that maintaining this founder-led approach is in the best interests of Google, our shareholders and our users."
The proposal is expected to be approved at a June shareholder meeting.
