Yahoo results show mixed financial picture

Yahoo’s second quarter results showed a mixed bag of figures but the company remained bullish about future growth.

Overall revenue was down 13 per cent over the year, with display sales revenues dropping off 14 per cent and listings revenue down 21 per cent. Nevertheless the company announced a profit gain of 7.8 per cent from the previous year.

“Considering the economy I’m pleased with our results,” said Yahoo executive Carol Bartz during a conference call.

“As far as the economy goes, it’s easy to assume it’s bumping along the bottom but in all honestly, there’s just so much conflicting information in the market that it’s just too early to call. Our goal in the midst of this is to run our business.”

She said the company had been cutting costs aggressively and would be using the savings to ramp up spending in key areas so that the company could grow as the economy expands.

In particular she mentioned the home page, which is being redesigned and rolled out today in teh US and next week in teh UK, France and India.

Advertising in particular is being revamped she said, to make adverts “more relevant and frankly less irritating to users.”

Some adverts would be cut or shown less often. This would cause the loss of around $75 million in advertising re3venue, which would be a drop in the ocean of current revenues.

The company has also signed a deal with AT&T so that the 5,000 salespeople working on the telco’s Yellowpages.com site could also sell advertising space on Yahoo.

Both Bartz and new chief financial officer Tim Morse would not be drawn on the possibilities of a deal with Microsoft to sell part or all of the company, despite recent rumours.