Yahoo has reported a net profit of $286 million for the quarter ending March 31st 2012, up 28% from $223 million reported during the corresponding period last year. Year-on-year, revenues for Yahoo were up 1% at $1.077 billion, from $1.064 billion. Note that this does not include revenue from traffic acquisition costs or TAC. Yahoo had expected revenue for the first quarter of 2012 to remain between $1.025-1.105 billion, and profit to be around $105-155 million. So this is an improvement compared to the outlook set by the company.
Future Outlook: Yahoo expects to register a revenue in the range of $1,030 million to $1,140 million, and profit between $115 million to $195 million, for the second quarter of 2012.
From the new CEO: “In the first quarter, Yahoo’s results came in at the high end of our guidance range and beat consensus on revenue and profits,” said Scott Thompson, CEO of Yahoo. “We also made changes to resize the organization and establish a new leadership structure to quickly deliver the best user and advertiser experiences at scale,” he added.
Operational Highlights
– A new leadership structure was established, organizing the company into three main groups — Consumer, Technology and Regions, with an intent to bring resources closer to users and advertisers
– Yahoo’s unique visitors grew by 7% YoY and its media property page views increased by 6% YoY for the quarter. Minutes spent increased 14% in communications and communities and 8% in media properties, according to comScore metrics.
– On the content side it launched original comedy Web shows as a part of a collaborative effort between Yahoo! and its production partners. New shows include “First Dates With Toby Harris” featuring Seth Morris (Funny or Die); “Sketchy” (Electus/Principato-Young Entertainment), and “7 Minutes in Heaven” with “Saturday Night Live” writer Mike O’Brien (Broadway Video). It also debuted the new ABC-produced daily series, “Power Players,” on Yahoo News, featuring an ABC and Yahoo News analyst team, and “Remake America,” a new weekly video series.
– Yahoo sued Facebook for infringement of ten patents.
– The company announced the implementation of a Do Not Track (DNT) header solution that will be accessible across Yahoo’s global network by early summer
– Yahoo says that it’s pursuing active discussions with Alibaba regarding monetization of a portion of its ownership stake.
– Advertising: Search advertising revenue increased 4% year on year. Display advertising revenue decreased 4% YoY. Search Query volume decreased 5% in the US.
– APAC Region: In terms of geographical contribution to revenue, the APAC market contributed $196 million to Yahoo’s income, a 5% increase compared to the same quarter last year. The Segment Contribution margin for the region was 74% for the region, compared with 76% for the same quarter last year.
– Americas: The Americas contributed $793 million to revenues, up 2% from $781 million an year ago. A 517 basis points reduction in segment margin to 77% and a 32% increase in direct costs.
