Alphabet Inc’s fourth-quarter revenue and profit beat Wall Street’s expectations on Monday but sharply higher spending, as it added data centres and marketed its services heavily during the holidays, worried investors. Partly because of the higher spending, Alphabet reported an operating margin of 21 percent in the fourth quarter, down from 24 percent a year ago. Facebook Inc’s better-then-expected fourth-quarter results last week had lifted expectations for Alphabet as they suggested that concerns about a global economic slowdown may be overblown.
