INSTANT VIEW - Google, IBM beat expectations

LOS ANGELES/SAN FRANCISCO/NEW YORK (Reuters) - Google's (GOOG.O) quarterly profit beat Wall Street expectations but its revenue growth was not as stellar as some investors had hoped, sending shares down 2 percent.

Also on Thursday, IBM (IBM.N) reported a 13 percent slide in revenue as corporate spending fell, but cost cuts and a shift to more profitable businesses helped it trump earnings expectations.

The company raised its profit outlook for the full year, helping send its shares higher.

COMMENTARY:

GOOGLE

LAXMI PORURI, ANALYST, PRIMARY GLOBAL RESEARCH

"They did decently, but obviously it's not high enough for the Street. We expected some slowness for a couple of reasons: one is that in the first quarter, we saw some click-through rates go down a bit, and there is definitely a bit of lag time between when that happens and what advertisers do.

"And the other thing is, there was definitely some weakness in pharma spending earlier in the quarter because some of the pharma companies got punished (by regulators) a bit in their search practices. They had to cut down on search spending and some of the companies haven't ramped up again."

MIKE HOLLAND, CHAIRMAN, HOLLAND & CO