Google on Tuesday reported strong earnings in the fourth quarter of 2012 which topped estimates by Wall Street analysts though its revenue was lower than expected.

Earnings per share excluding items were 10.65 U.S. dollars in the quarter, compared to 9.5 dollars in the same period a year earlier.

Excluding payment made to its advertising partners, Google's revenue was 11.34 billion dollars, up from 8.13 billion dollars in the quarter a year ago.

Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters had expected Google to report fourth-quarter earnings of 10.47 dollars per share on revenue of 12.3 billion dollars.

"We ended 2012 with a strong quarter," said Larry Page, Google' s chief executive officer, in a statement.

"In today's multi-screen world we face tremendous opportunities as a technology company focused on user benefit. It's an incredibly exciting time to be at Google," he added.

Google noted that the sales figure didn't include revenue from Motorola Home, the set-top box business the company bought as part of its acquisition of Motorola Mobility.

On Dec. 19 last year, Google announced to sell Motorola Home to Arris, a broadband media technology company, for around 2.35 billion dollars. The transaction is expected to close in 2013.

Last week, Google warned that analysts may not be fully aware of its recent sale of Motorola Home, saying that fourth-quarter financial results from the division will be extracted from its earnings which will have an impact on the search giant's financial reporting.

"A majority of Wall Street analysts who cover Google have not reflected the Home business as discontinued operations in their estimates," said Brent Callinicos, Google's treasurer and chief accountant, in a press release on Jan. 18.

Google's latest performance in advertising business is being closely watched by analysts as the company continues to expand in the mobile market.

It is facing challenges to get more revenue from ads on mobile devices, for which advertisers have not been willing to pay as much as those displayed on personal computers.

In the last three months of 2012, the average price advertisers paid when an ad was clicked on Google sites dropped 6 percent over the same period in 2011, but increased 2 percent over the third quarter of 2012, the company said. Endite

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