Posted on 04/10/2002 3:38:17 PM PDT by Red Jones
Losses persist at Yahoo
Yahoo, one of the earliest web pioneers and still one of the main portals for web users, remains loss-making as advertising continues to be hard to come by.
But revenue was growing faster than analysts expected, the company said, as it tries to shift from relying on advertising to providing value-added, paid-for services.
For the first three months of 2002, Yahoo reported a net loss of $53.7m (£37.4m) or 9 cents a share, its sixth straight quarter of losses.
In the same period last year Yahoo lost $11.5m or 2 cents a share.
Excluding one-offs and other extraordinary items, however, it turned a modest profit of 2 cents a share or $10.5m, roughly in line with expectations.
Light ahead? But a large part of the loss was the result of accounting changes to reflect new valuations of assets bought during the boom years.
And Yahoo was keen to point out that revenue was $192.7m, up from $180.2m a year earlier and against a prediction of about $175m.
As for the current three months to June, Yahoo said they would be even better - $205-225m, while observers are betting on $192m.
"We posted solid results this quarter due to the transformation of Yahoo's business model," said its chief executive, Terry Semel.
"Our quarterly performance demonstrates continued momentum as we move forward in executing on our strategic objectives."
I guess the key lesson is that advertising revenues are not as good as having something to sell directly yourself. That was yahoo's lesson.
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