Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Thursday, April 11, 2002
Good News for Yahoo
Yahoo (YHOO) posted a loss for the sixth quarter in a row Wednesday, but it easily hurdled revenue forecasts and said its turnaround plan remains on track.
Yahoo (YHOO) posted a loss for the sixth quarter in a row Wednesday, but it easily hurdled revenue forecasts and said its turnaround plan remains on track.
In the first three months of the year, Yahoo lost $53.6 million, or 9 cents a share, on $192.7 million in revenue. In the first quarter of 2001, the company lost $11.5 million, or 2 cents a share, on sales of $180.2 million.
But excluding a one-time adjustment to earnings because of a change in accounting methods, the Internet portal said it had a net profit of $10.5 million, or 2 cents a share.
Analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call were expecting 2 cents a share, but Yahoo blew past the revenue forecast of $175 million.
After seeing its fortunes plunge in the dot-com bust, Yahoo pledged to reduce its reliance on ads, which once made up 90% of its revenues.
In recent months, the company has made dozens of refinements to its site to attract new users and new sources of income. Those range from small steps, such as charging people for automatic forwarding of Yahoo e-mails, to bigger moves like the acquisition of HotJobs.com, a career-placement site.
In part because of an expected boost from HotJobs, Yahoo said it expects revenue in the current quarter to be between $205 million and $225 million, and revenue for the full year of $870 million and $910 million. Both figures are well ahead of current analysts' projections.
Yahoo said its base of registered users grew to 237 million. Of those, 98 million actively used the site in March, which the company said was an encouraging sign that its "efforts to build deeper relationships with its consumers are paying off."
Yahoo shares fell 2 cents to $18.44 on the Nasdaq Stock Market before the earnings report was released. The stock hit $18.60 early in the extended session.
The company did not immediately provide an update on the search for a replacement to President and Chief Operating Officer Jeff Mallett, a longtime Yahoo executive who said in January he would step down this month to pursue outside business opportunities.