Google owner Alphabet loses $500bn in market value after profit disappoints Wall Street

Net profit slid 25% from a year earlier to $26.2bn, well short of expectations, though revenue rose to $127.6bnShares in the Google parent Alphabet fell double digits Wednesday evening into Thursday trading, erasing hundreds of billions of dollars in stock market value from the $4tn tech giant.The company had reported lower-than-expected profit and a slowdown in its advertising business while…