Roughly an hour ago a draft of Google’s Q3 earnings press release appeared on the SEC Edgar website. It showed revenues of $14.1 billion, including $2.58 billion from Motorola. The language of the release made it clear that the document wasn’t final (“pending Larry quote”).

The early release came as a big surprise to tech bloggers and investors alike. Results were supposed to be released after the market closed today. Earnings disappointed investors and reaction was swift sending Google’s stock down nearly 10 percent before trading in Google shares was halted.

Google blamed the embarrassing incident on partner RR Donnelley. The following is a statement the company provided to the Wall Street Journal explaining what happened:

Earlier this morning RR Donnelley, the financial printer, informed us that they had filed our draft 8K earnings statement without authorization. We have ceased trading on NASDAQ NDAQ -0.04% while we work to finalize the document. Once it’s finalized we will release our earnings, resume trading on NASDAQ and hold our earnings call as normal at 1:30 PM PT

We discuss the earnings categories and breakdown in more detail in a companion article at Search Engine Land.

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Google: Business Issues | Top News

About The Author: Greg Sterling is a Contributing Editor at Search Engine Land. He writes a personal blog Screenwerk, about SoLoMo issues and connecting the dots between online and offline. He also posts at Internet2Go, which is focused on the mobile Internet. Follow him @gsterling. See more articles by Greg Sterling

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