Google has released its Q4 2013 earnings, reporting $16.86 billion in revenue, up 17 per cent compared to Q4 2012, and $3.38 billion in net income, up from $2.89 billion in Q4 2012. 

Most telling, it was revealed Motorola lost $384 million for Google during the quarter, showing the handset business continued to be a dagger in Google's side. That makes for a loss totaling $1.25 billion from Motorola in 2013 alone, and might be an indication to why Motorola was sold to Lenovo by Google for $2.91 billion on Wednesday.

"We ended 2013 with another great quarter of momentum and growth. Google's standalone revenue was up 22 per cent year on year, at $15.7 billion", said Larry Page, Google CEO. "We made great progress across a wide range of product improvements and business goals. I'm also very excited about improving people's lives even more with continued hard work on our user experiences."

Google beat analyst earnings on revenue, but missed slightly on net income. The stock has slightly risen in extended trading. 

Speaking about Google's acquisition of Nest during the quarter, Google's CFO Patrick Pichette explained: "Nest and Google share a real common vision. Both believe technology should do the hard work so people can go on with their lives. Our goal with Nest is to help them scale, to scale internationally and reach a global audience."

Google will be holding an earnings call at 9:30pm/4:30pm EST to discuss the numbers in specifics. It's expected we'll also hear more about Google's decision to sell Motorola.