Google parent Alphabet's shares slide as earnings miss expectations

Shares in Alphabet, the parent company behind Google, fell on 26 January after its fourth-quarter earnings fell short of expectations. Net income rose 8% from a year earlier to $5.3bn (£4.2bn) for the last three months of 2016, with earnings per share coming in at $9.36. The rise in profits was helped by strong growth in mobile search and YouTube, while the firm announced that its costs had also climbed during the fourth quarter as a result of investments in its core business.