Yahoo Inc raised its financial target on Wednesday, reflecting expectations that the Internet company would attract more online advertisers as it reaps savings from an upcoming search partnership with Microsoft Corp.
In a presentation for stock market analysts, Yahoo projected its operating profit margin would range from 18 percent to 24 percent by 2013. That’s more ambitious than the margin of 15 percent to 20 percent forecast by the company in its last all-day meeting with analysts seven months ago.
Reaching the new goal will be a challenge, given Yahoo’s operating profit margin last year was just 6 percent.
Yahoo expects annual revenue to increase by an average of 7 to 10 percent through 2013. The company’s revenue declined 10 percent last year as the recession drove down Internet ad rates and shrunk marketing budgets. This year started off better, with revenue edging up 1 percent in the first quarter.
Last year’s downturn turned another Yahoo forecast into a broken promise. In early 2008, Yahoo released a financial blueprint calling for net revenue growth of about 25 percent last year and this year. That rosy outlook came while Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang (楊致遠) was trying to fend off an unsolicited takeover attempt by Microsoft.
Yahoo hired Silicon Valley veteran Carol Bartz to replace Yang as CEO 16 months ago in an attempt to snap out of prolonged financial funk and lift the company’s sagging stock. The shares gained US$0.14 on Wednesday to close at US$15.45, far below Microsoft’s last offer of US$33 per share two years ago.
Microsoft is now responsible for a key piece of Bartz’s turnaround strategy by providing the technology that will power Yahoo’s search engine and provide ads ties to the requests made by users.
Yahoo will keep 88 percent of the revenue from search ads clicked on its Web site while spending less on engineers, computers and research to deliver the results. By 2013, Yahoo expects the Microsoft deal to be producing at least US$650 million in annual savings. Overall, Yahoo expects its annual costs to rise by an average of 2 percent to 3 percent through 2013.
Microsoft is expected to start delivering some of Yahoo’s search results late this year. The transition won’t be complete, though, until next year.
Bartz also has been closing or selling some of Yahoo’s less profitable services, while bringing in more content from other popular Internet hangouts such as Facebook, Twitter and online game maker Zynga. She is hoping those services will help keep people on Yahoo’s Web site for longer periods of time.
Taiwan’s Lee Chia-hao (李佳豪) on Sunday won a silver medal at the All England Open Badminton Championships in Birmingham, England, a career best. Lee, 25, took silver in the final of the men’s singles against world No. 1 Shi Yuqi (石宇奇) of China, who won 21-17, 21-19 in a tough match that lasted 51 minutes. After the match, the Taiwanese player, who ranks No. 22 in the world, said it felt unreal to be challenging an opponent of Shi’s caliber. “I had to be in peak form, and constantly switch my rhythm and tactics in order to score points effectively,” he said. Lee got
‘CROWN JEWEL’: Washington ‘can delay and deter’ Chinese President Xi Jinping’s plans for Taiwan, but it is ‘a very delicate situation there,’ the secretary of state said US President Donald Trump is opposed to any change to Taiwan’s “status quo” by force or extortion and would maintain that policy, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio told the Hugh Hewitt Show host on Wednesday. The US’ policy is to maintain Taiwan’s “status quo” and to oppose any changes in the situation by force or extortion, Rubio said. Hewitt asked Rubio about the significance of Trump earlier this month speaking with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (台積電) chairman C.C. Wei (魏哲家) at the White House, a meeting that Hewitt described as a “big deal.” Asked whether the meeting was an indication of the
‘RELATIVELY STRONG LANGUAGE’: An expert said the state department has not softened its language on China and was ‘probably a little more Taiwan supportive’ China’s latest drills near Taiwan on Monday were “brazen and irresponsible threats,” a US Department of State spokesperson said on Tuesday, while reiterating Washington’s decades-long support of Taipei. “China cannot credibly claim to be a ‘force for stability in a turbulent world’ while issuing brazen and irresponsible threats toward Taiwan,” the unnamed spokesperson said in an e-mailed response to media queries. Washington’s enduring commitment to Taiwan will continue as it has for 45 years and the US “will continue to support Taiwan in the face of China’s military, economic, informational and diplomatic pressure campaign,” the e-mail said. “Alongside our international partners, we firmly
The Ministry of Foreign Affairs yesterday said it has lodged a protest with Pretoria after the name of the Taipei Liaison Office in South Africa was changed to the “Taipei Commercial Office” on the South African Department of International Relations and Cooperation’s (DIRCO) Web site. In October last year, the South African government asked Taiwan to relocate the Taipei Liaison Office, the nation’s de facto embassy, out of Pretoria. It later agreed to continue negotiating through official channels, but in January asked that the office be relocated by the end of this month. As of the middle of last month, DIRCO’s Web
RSS