21 October 2009 | Author: D. Warburton Search Copywriter

Yahoo! third quarter profits exceed expectations

Yahoo! profits have exceeded expectations for the third financial quarter, despite the company's revenue falling by 12 per cent in the last year.

The Q3 report for Yahoo! reveals that the company's revenue is reported at $1.6 billion, or $1.1 billion when excluding partner companies' traffic acquisition costs. CNET News reports that this figure is in line with analyst estimates, but that a series of personnel layoffs and streamlining initiatives under new CEO Carol Bartz have seen the company achieve a significant 244 per cent increase in net income, rising from $54 million in the third quarter of 2008 to $186 million in Q3 2009.

This represents an increase per share of $0.15 when factoring out special items, which exceeds even the most optimistic analyst estimates of a $0.10 rise.

2009 has seen Yahoo! rebranding its business with a new homepage and international marketing campaign, as the company sold its search business to Microsoft and cut 2,000 jobs since this time last year to focus on its core properties. CFO Tim Morse stated: "There's a change occurring at Yahoo! that will value that kind of work."

Mr Morse was also keen to direct awareness towards Yahoo!'s improved performance in display advertising compared to the second quarter of 2009 which registers a slight improvement, rather than this time last year which displays a clear slump. The CFO also announced that the much-discussed deal between Yahoo! and Microsoft should close early next year, as the two companies work more closely together.

Yahoo! is predicting its fourth quarter revenue to register between $1.6 billion and $1.7 billion, which - although still down from 2008 - is a marked improvement over the $1.2 billion previously predicted for the fourth quarter by financial analysts.

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