Search engine provider Yahoo! is expected to come under intense scrutiny when it announces its first-quarter earnings, the Wall Street Journal reports.According to the publication, the announcement, which will be made tomorrow (April 22nd), will be an opportunity for the firm to demonstrate it is worth more than rival company Microsoft is bidding for it.
Microsoft has set a deadline for discussions for April 26th, two days after it releases its own three-monthly earnings.
Analysts anticipate that Yahoo! will meet its modest financial projections, which it confirmed earlier this month.
The firm predicted first-quarter revenue of between $1.68 billion and $1.84 billion. This compares to $1.67 billion a year earlier.
According to Jeffrey Lindsay, an internet analyst with wealth management company Sanford C Bernstein, Yahoo! is likely to deliver in terms of its projected earnings due to its desire to avoid a Microsoft takeover unless the offer is raised.
He stated: "In any internet business, you can pull the stops out in any one or two quarters. [Yahoo! would] be very crazy not to."
Last week, rival search engine provider Google announced revenue of $5.19 billion for the first three months of 2008. This figure exceeded the expectations of investors who were concerned about the search giant's financial status following the publication of comScore figures that suggested the company's click-through rates had increased by only two per cent compared with last year.
