Executives said the latest results backed their contention that the performance recently has been affected by currency exchange rates and one-off fluctuations rather than advertiser flight or some deeper challenge to its business. Alphabet's chief financial officer, Ruth Porat, appeared to dispel other analyst concerns, saying the company has seen "virtually no impact" to revenue from efforts to stop running ads on YouTube videos that some have characterized as extremist or hateful. Alphabet authorized up to USD 25 billion in new stock buybacks, aiming to make use of its USD 121 billion in cash. Pichai said quarterly revenue from licensing cloud computing services and workplace software jumped to about USD 2 billion, from its last disclosure of USD 1 billion at the end of 2017. He said the cloud unit would triple its sales staff over the next few years.