­Google has issued a surprise drop in its quarterly profits, and also had to request that its shares be suspended from trading after the financial results were released too early.

The financial report was due to be released at 5:30pm local time, after the stock market had closed, but were released by accident at 12:31pm local time. The release was still waiting for comments to be added to it in a space marked "PENDING LARRY QUOTE".

The company posted a sharp rise in revenues, of US$14.1 billion - a rise of 45% over the previous year, but net profits fell by 20% to $2.18 billion.

The preliminary statement did not include any explanation for the drop in profits, although the bulk of it could be attributed to losses at the Motorola division, and the company shareprice dropped by 9% before trading was suspended.

The company said that Motorola Mobility revenues were $2.58 billion ($1.78 billion from the mobile segment and $797 million from the home segment), or 18% of consolidated revenues in the third quarter of 2012.

Motorola Mobility posted an operating loss of US$527 million ($505 million for the mobile segment and $22 million for the home segment).

Google said its financial printers, RR Donnelley, filed the draft results statement without authorization.