Google Throttles Back on Data Center Spending

Google (GOOG) spent $368 million on its infrastructure in the fourth quarter of 2008 as it scaled back its ambitious data center building boom, idling a $600 million project. The fourth quarter capital expenditure (CapEx) total, which was included in today’s earnings release, was less than half the $842 million Google spent on its data centers in the first quarter of 2008.