SAN FRANCISCO (AP) Google's stock roared out of a long slumber Friday to produce the biggest shareholder windfall in U.S. history as investors rewarded the Internet company for promising to curb its spending on risky projects.
The words placated investors who had become increasingly frustrated with Google's penchant for spending on projects that had little or nothing to do with its man business of Internet search and advertising areas that the company has long dominated.
The expansion into more experimental areas, such as self-driving cars, Internet-beaming balloons, and Internet-connected eyewear, had been contributing to a pattern of Google's operating expenses increasing at a faster clip than its revenue growth.
Google CEO Larry Page and fellow co-founder Sergey Brin, who wield voting control over the company, resisted the demands until having an apparent change of heart in March when they lured Porat away as CFO at investment bank Morgan Stanley to take the same job at Google.
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