Yahoo Inc's profit slipped again in the second quarter, a recurring theme that has frustrated shareholders and raised doubts about the Internet company's future.
While the results released on Tuesday missed analyst expectations, the performance was not as bad as many investors had feared after Internet search and advertising leader Google Inc disappointed Wall Street with its second-quarter earnings last week.
What’s more, Yahoo management maintained its revenue outlook for the remainder of this year. The confident stance eased concerns about Yahoo’s financial erosion worsening amid the dreary economy in the US and parts of Europe.
Yahoo shares rebounded US$0.58 in extended trading after falling US$0.27 to finish Tuesday’s regular session at US$21.40.
“They did better than the worst expectations,” Canaccord Adams analyst Colin Gillis said. “It was a ‘rice-cracker’ quarter. It didn’t taste great, but it wasn’t totally horrible either.”
The Sunnyvale, California-based company earned US$131 million, or US$0.09 per share, from April through last month. That was down 18 percent from US$161 million, or US$0.11 per share, at the same time last year.
This was the ninth time in the past 10 quarters that Yahoo’s profit has ebbed from the previous year.
Analysts had projected earnings of US$0.11 per share in the most recent quarter, Thomson Financial said.
A big chunk of the earnings shortfall stemmed from the bills that piled up as Yahoo dealt with an unsolicited takeover bid from Microsoft Corp and a now-resolved battle for control of its board with activist investor Carl Icahn.
The drama cost Yahoo US$22 million in the second quarter, mainly for outside advisers and related legal defense costs. Coupled with its first-quarter expenses, Yahoo has now spent US$36 million on its wrestling match with Microsoft and Icahn.
Revenue for the quarter totaled US$1.8 billion, a 6 percent improvement from US$1.7 billion at the same time last year.
After subtracting commissions paid to Yahoo’s advertising partners, revenue stood at US$1.35 billion — about US$20 million below the average analyst estimate.
Ahead of Yahoo’s annual meeting on Aug. 1, chief executive Jerry Yang (楊致遠) was hoping shareholders would view the latest quarter as step in the right direction.
“This company is doing just fine in a tough economy and a tough environment,” Yang said in an interview on Tuesday. “We think there are a lot of good things to come still.”
Yang believes he can dramatically accelerate Yahoo’s revenue growth during the next two years by extending the reach of its own online marketing network and drawing upon Google’s superior technology to sell some ads on Yahoo’s Web site.
If the proposed partnership isn’t blocked by antitrust regulators, Yahoo hopes to start displaying some Google-generated ads in September. Management estimates the Google deal will boost Yahoo’s annual revenue by US$800 million.
MORE VISITORS: The Tourism Administration said that it is seeing positive prospects in its efforts to expand the tourism market in North America and Europe Taiwan has been ranked as the cheapest place in the world to travel to this year, based on a list recommended by NerdWallet. The San Francisco-based personal finance company said that Taiwan topped the list of 16 nations it chose for budget travelers because US tourists do not need visas and travelers can easily have a good meal for less than US$10. A bus ride in Taipei costs just under US$0.50, while subway rides start at US$0.60, the firm said, adding that public transportation in Taiwan is easy to navigate. The firm also called Taiwan a “food lover’s paradise,” citing inexpensive breakfast stalls
TRADE: A mandatory declaration of origin for manufactured goods bound for the US is to take effect on May 7 to block China from exploiting Taiwan’s trade channels All products manufactured in Taiwan and exported to the US must include a signed declaration of origin starting on May 7, the Bureau of Foreign Trade announced yesterday. US President Donald Trump on April 2 imposed a 32 percent tariff on imports from Taiwan, but one week later announced a 90-day pause on its implementation. However, a universal 10 percent tariff was immediately applied to most imports from around the world. On April 12, the Trump administration further exempted computers, smartphones and semiconductors from the new tariffs. In response, President William Lai’s (賴清德) administration has introduced a series of countermeasures to support affected
CROSS-STRAIT: The vast majority of Taiwanese support maintaining the ‘status quo,’ while concern is rising about Beijing’s influence operations More than eight out of 10 Taiwanese reject Beijing’s “one country, two systems” framework for cross-strait relations, according to a survey released by the Mainland Affairs Council (MAC) on Thursday. The MAC’s latest quarterly survey found that 84.4 percent of respondents opposed Beijing’s “one country, two systems” formula for handling cross-strait relations — a figure consistent with past polling. Over the past three years, opposition to the framework has remained high, ranging from a low of 83.6 percent in April 2023 to a peak of 89.6 percent in April last year. In the most recent poll, 82.5 percent also rejected China’s
PLUGGING HOLES: The amendments would bring the legislation in line with systems found in other countries such as Japan and the US, Legislator Chen Kuan-ting said Democratic Progressive Party (DPP) Legislator Chen Kuan-ting (陳冠廷) has proposed amending national security legislation amid a spate of espionage cases. Potential gaps in security vetting procedures for personnel with access to sensitive information prompted him to propose the amendments, which would introduce changes to Article 14 of the Classified National Security Information Protection Act (國家機密保護法), Chen said yesterday. The proposal, which aims to enhance interagency vetting procedures and reduce the risk of classified information leaks, would establish a comprehensive security clearance system in Taiwan, he said. The amendment would require character and loyalty checks for civil servants and intelligence personnel prior to
RSS