Yahoo! 3Q net profit doubles but revenue disappoints

SAN FRANCISCO: Yahoo!'s quarterly net profit more than doubled but revenue growth was flat at the struggling Internet company and its forecast for the current quarter disappointing.

Yahoo! said Tuesday that third-quarter net profit soared to 396.1 mn dollars from 186 mn dollars a year ago while revenue rose two percent to 1.6 bn dollars.

While the Sunnyvale, California-based Internet firm's net profit of 29 cents per share beat Wall Street expectations, the figure got a 13-cent boost from the sale of employment website HotJobs.

Revenue was 1.12 bn dollars after traffic acquisition costs -- slightly less than the 1.13 bn dollars anticipated by Wall Street analysts.

Yahoo! said it expected revenue of 1.125 mn dollars to 1.225 mn dollars in the current quarter.

Analysts expected an outlook of 1.26 bn dollars and the weak forecast is likely to increase pressure on Yahoo! chief executive Carol Bartz to deliver results.

The Wall Street Journal reported last week that AOL and several equity firms are exploring the possibility of buying Yahoo!

Yahoo! shares were up 0.52 percent to 15.57 dollars in after-hours trading that followed the earnings release.

Bartz billed the results as proof Yahoo! is on course to regain lost glory.

"We delivered a solid quarter with good display advertising revenue growth, big gains in operating income, and margins that were double what they were last year," Bartz said in a statement.

"We've made substantial progress this year toward executing our strategies for enhancing profitability and resuming revenue growth," Bartz said, noting an 18 percent climb in display advertising that is a key Yahoo! money maker.

"Product rollouts are accelerating thanks to modernization of our underlying platforms; and we continue to implement our search alliance with Microsoft on schedule," she said.

Microsoft and Yahoo! reached an agreement last year which calls for the US software giant to eventually power searches at all Yahoo! websites.

Yahoo! will continue, however, to present search results in its own fashion on its sites with only a discreet reference at the bottom of the page to them being "Powered by Bing," Microsoft's new search engine.

Yahoo! has "disposed of non-core assets" while making strategic acquisitions and cultivating partnerships with hot young Internet stars Facebook, Twitter, and Zynga, according to Bartz.

Yahoo! was highlighting its confidence in a turn-around by buying back its stock and reported that it has purchased more than seven percent of its shares so far this year.

Less than two weeks ago, Yahoo! began rolling out changes to its Web search engine in what amounted to the first significant revamp since it partnered with Microsoft to take on market leader Google.

Yahoo! recently provided a glimpse at the faded Internet search star's future identity that included making its Web pages more personalized and social.

Engineers at Yahoo! have told AFP they have devoted their energies to new products, tools and services since shifting the "block-and-tackle" labor of scouring the Web to Microsoft.

Yahoo! has revamped its free Web-based email service and is weaving Twitter into its online pages so people can more easily fire off or view updates at the microblogging service.

Yahoo! allows for Facebook updates and lets users import contact information from the social network.

With the goal of getting more of its 600 mn users around the world to visit Yahoo! pages more, the websites will begin honoring Facebook and Twitter account sign-ins, according to Yahoo! chief product officer Blake Irving.