BY REUTERS
San Francisco,
TAG – Yahoo Chief Executive Scott Thompson on Wednesday tried to manage expectations on
his first earnings call as the new CEO, broadly addressing numerous issues the Internet
company is grappling with -- from a potential sale to reviving its core display
advertising business -- but declined to lay out a detailed strategy.
Analysts prodded Thompson for clues about his plans for Yahoo Inc, which
fired former CEO Carol Bartz in September and last week saw co-founder Jerry
Yang resign unexpectedly, but all they received were boilerplate comments about
how the company needs to "do better" and "get innovative
products that matter into the market."
Thompson, along with Chief Financial Officer Tim Morse, gave few hints
about the progress of Yahoo's strategic review as well, dashing hopes that his
arrival might hasten a transaction.
Morse said talks with Yahoo's Asian partners -- Alibaba and Softbank --
about a restructuring were continuing but beyond that provided little concrete
detail on where things stand.
Thompson, who was only hired as CEO two weeks ago, added that the
company's board has narrowed down its options to the ones that appear
"most promising."
Meanwhile, Yahoo's net revenue and profit fell slightly in the fourth
quarter, as it experienced year-over-year declines in both its search and
display ad business.
Shares of the company slipped 4 cents to $15.65 in after-hours trade.
Morse said that macroeconomic factors, particularly in Europe, resulted
in weaker than expected display advertising revenue in the fourth quarter and
continued to be a concern.
"We still look out, especially upon Europe, with some
caution," Morse told Reuters in an interview.
But he said Yahoo was seeing some positive trends in the new year,
noting that some large advertisers that had limited their ad spending with
Yahoo in 2011, had already committed to "meaningful up-fronts" in
2012.
The struggling Internet company projected that its net revenue in the
first quarter would range between $1.025 billion and $1.105 billion.
The company earned $296 million in net income in the three months ended
December 31, or 24 cents a share, compared with $312 million, or 24 cents a
share, in the year-ago period. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S were expecting 24 cents per
share in profit.
In the fourth quarter, Yahoo reported net revenue, which excludes fees
that Yahoo shares with Web partners, of roughly $1.17 billion, compared with
$1.205 billion the same time last year.
Display ad revenue, Yahoo's main source of
revenue, totaled $612 million for the quarter. Search ad revenue for the
quarter came in at $465 million, $48 million of which stemmed from its
partnership with Microsoft.[]
Related articles:
New Yahoo CEO Says Company Needs To "Do Better"
Reviewed by theacehglobe
on
January 25, 2012
Rating:
Reviewed by theacehglobe
on
January 25, 2012
Rating:
No comments: