New York - Goldman Sachs said Tuesday the global financial crisis had pushed it into the red for the first time since it became a publicly traded company nearly a decade ago.

The Wall Street firm lost 2.12 billion dollars, or 4.97 dollars per share, in the fourth quarter after earnings of 3.2 billion dollars, or 7.01 dollars per share, in the year-earlier period.

Goldman Sachs had been weathering the crisis better than much of its competition as it continued to report earnings until this quarter, despite announcing earlier this year that it would convert from an investment bank to a commercial bank as a result of the fallout from the decimation of mortgage-related assets on balance sheets at the largest financial firms.

A year ago, the firm reported a record yearly profit, but this year's earnings fell by nearly 80 per cent to 2.3 billion dollars. Revenue fell by more than half to 22.2 billion dollars for the year and was negative in the fourth quarter, at negative 1.6 billion dollars.

Goldman Sachs is cutting 10 per cent of its jobs and slashed pay for many of its remaining 30,000 employees.

The bank was listed on the stock exchange in 1999.