There will be a whack-o-coverage of Google's better-than-expected first-quarter results (CEO Eric Schmidt: "good news across the whole business") but here are some interesting tidbits from the conference call with analysts:
- 42% of revenue came from international operations
- $1-billion in EBITDA
- $9.3-billion of cash, which Schmidt said gives Google "sufficient cash to take advantage of [opportunities] if they make sense".
That sure seems like an awful lot of cash for opportunities if you ask me unless they are looking to make a major acquisition - I'm not counting the purchase of Writely.com as "major"
- $284-million spent in the quarter on "head-count and facilities"
- Larry Page's take on the launch of new Google properties such as Finance, Video, etc. "We are looking for areas where we can innovate and meet really substantial user needs - generally areas that are not being addressed well at all now".
Hmmm, interesting comment given many of Google's new services (GMail, Froogle, Video, etc.) have failed to overwhelm Internet users.
- Sergey Brin said Google's Wi-Fi strategy is based on the company's interest in "providing better, more transparent accesss to the Internet for our users". As for the Wi-Fi business model, Page said ideally "we and everyone else in the world would be excited about good Internet access that is free, ad-supported and profitable".
Anyone want to read between the lines of these comments? Sounds to me like Google has pretty aggressive Wi-Fi plans. Wonder what Om thinks?

Thanks to some terrific work by Canada's resident expert, David Crow, mesh has a wiki. Anything you ever wanted to know about mesh is there: from the conference schedule and details about the unconference room to hotels, the mesh blog and cool stuff to do in Toronto (other than go to mesh). So check out it: use it, add information, share ideas, make suggestions, etc. As well, this is as good a time as any to thank everyone who have volunteered their time, energy, brain power and enthusiasm for mesh. The amount of work involved to put together a conference is much higher than I ever imagined so we're extremely grateful for all the help we've received over the past couple of months. To register for mesh - tickets are going fast! - click here.
Update: For more on the wiki and the different opportunities available, check out Mathew Ingram and the mesh blog.

Earlier this week, I got some pushback on a post - Dot-Com Bust II - suggesting the Internet investment landscape was getting frothy. The point was that the excitement among investors (mostly private equity, for now) was edging towards exurberance. This thesis has only been bolstered in the past 48 hours with a flurry of VC deals: Facebook ($25-million), Healthia ($7-million), Veoh ($12.5-million), SimplyHired ($13.5-million) and Jingle Networks ($26-million). It's like there a wild party happening and no one wants to miss it even if you have to slip the bouncer a $20 bill to get in. Of course, there are people who adamantly believe the Internet market is healthy because many companies are being prudent with their money and the stock market has yet to see IPOs from opportunistic companies with little or no revenue and lots of red ink. But there is a new wave of private equity hittting the market - some of it going into markets where there's already plenty of competition and well-established players. Maybe it's just me; maybe the skeptic who saw the last dot-com boom come crashing down is still alive and well.
Update: For more on Facebook's financing and the social networking pheomena, check out BusinessWeek and Bambi Francisco.
Update II: CNNMoney.com's Adam Lashinsky has a story on the "smart way" to invest in the new "Net boom" - something Valleywag is happy to lampoon.