After a painful descent, things may finally be looking up for long-suffering Yahoo Inc.
Coming off its best quarterly performance since hiring Carol Bartz as its chief executive a year ago, Yahoo promised late on Tuesday to deliver even more meaningful progress this year.
For starters, the Internet company expects its revenue for the three months ending in March to rise 3 percent to US$1.63 billion, after five consecutive quarters of declining revenue.
Even if the company hits management’s target, Yahoo’s first-quarter revenue will still be nearly US$200 million below where it stood two years ago.
Yahoo’s fourth-quarter results released on Tuesday provided the latest evidence the Internet ad market is regaining its legs as the economy stabilizes. Google Inc, the Internet’s dominant advertising vehicle, closed out last year with its most robust growth of the year.
“Things seem to be returning to a more normal state in the online advertising business,” Bartz told analysts in a Tuesday conference call.
Yahoo earned US$153 million, or US$0.11 per share, during the final three months of last year, rebounding from a loss of US$303 million, or US$0.22 per share, in the prior year.
If not for charges for internal reshuffling and a proposed search partnership with Microsoft Corp, Yahoo said it would have made US$0.15 per share in the quarter. That topped the average estimate of US$0.11 per share among analysts surveyed by Thomson Reuters.
Revenue slipped 4 percent to US$1.73 billion. In contrast, Google’s fourth-quarter revenue surged 17 percent. Yahoo still did better than the first nine months of last year, when the company’s revenue dropped 12 percent.
In a sign of Yahoo’s growing confidence, the company added 700 workers to its payroll in the fourth quarter to end last month with 13,900 employees. That’s still down from Yahoo’s recent peak employment of 15,200 in September 2008.
Yahoo intends to buy other companies this year, Bartz said, setting her sights on small deals.
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-Wong tomorrow, which it said would possibly make landfall near central Taiwan. As of 2am yesterday, Fung-Wong was about 1,760km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, moving west-northwest at 26kph. It is forecast to reach Luzon in the northern Philippines by tomorrow, the CWA said. After entering the South China Sea, Typhoon Fung-Wong is likely to turn northward toward Taiwan, CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said, adding that it would likely make landfall near central Taiwan. The CWA expects to issue a land
Taiwan’s exports soared to an all-time high of US$61.8 billion last month, surging 49.7 percent from a year earlier, as the global frenzy for artificial intelligence (AI) applications and new consumer electronics powered shipments of high-tech goods, the Ministry of Finance said yesterday. It was the first time exports had exceeded the US$60 billion mark, fueled by the global boom in AI development that has significantly boosted Taiwanese companies across the international supply chain, Department of Statistics Director-General Beatrice Tsai (蔡美娜) told a media briefing. “There is a consensus among major AI players that the upcycle is still in its early stage,”
The Central Weather Administration (CWA) yesterday said it is expected to issue a sea warning for Typhoon Fung-wong this afternoon and a land warning tomorrow. As of 1pm, the storm was about 1,070km southeast of Oluanpi (鵝鑾鼻), Taiwan’s southernmost point, and was moving west-northwest at 28 to 32kph, according to CWA data. The storm had a radius of 250km, with maximum sustained winds of 173kph and gusts reaching 209kph, the CWA added. The storm is forecast to pass near Luzon in the Philippines before entering the South China Sea and potentially turning northward toward Taiwan, the CWA said. CWA forecaster Chang Chun-yao (張峻堯) said
PREPARATION: Ferry lines and flights were canceled ahead of only the second storm to hit the nation in November, while many areas canceled classes and work Authorities yesterday evacuated more than 3,000 people ahead of approaching Tropical Storm Fung-wong, which is expected to make landfall between Kaohsiung and Pingtung County this evening. Fung-wong was yesterday morning downgraded from a typhoon to a tropical storm as it approached the nation’s southwest coast, the Central Weather Administration (CWA) said, as it issued a land alert for the storm. The alert applies to residents in Tainan, Kaohsiung, Pingtung and Taitung counties, and the Hengchun Peninsula (恆春). As of press time last night, Taichung, Tainan, Kaohsiung, and Yilan, Miaoli, Changhua, Yunlin, Pingtung and Penghu counties, as well as Chiayi city and county had
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