Online portal Yahoo! continues to feel the burden of its dependence on
advertising revenue, posting a slim pro-forma profit but announcing layoffs.
The Santa Clara, Calif.-based company saw before-charges income of $7.6
million, or $0.01 per share, on revenue of $180.2 million for the first
quarter. That narrowly beat analysts’ expectations of a breakeven quarter,
according to Thomson Financial/First Call. Those revisions were lowered
last month, when Yahoo! issued an earnings warning.
Including charges, the company posted a quarterly loss of $11.5 million,
or $0.02 per share — a far cry from the firm’s net profit of $67,599,000,
or $0.11 per share, in the previous year.
Next quarter, Yahoo! said it anticipates a pro-forma loss and an
additional one-time charge of $40 million to $60 million in severance and
restructuring costs. But in successive quarters, Yahoo! said it would post
increasing pro forma income as the operational savings becomes apparent.
But what president Jeff Mallett described as “modest” growth in Yahoo!’s
business services (including Web hosting, Webcasting, domain name
registration and its B2B marketplaces) won’t be enough to save Yahoo! from
its reliance on ad revenue as its chief source of income. And with
advertising comprising nearly 83 percent of Yahoo!’s revenues, Mallett said
the company has been forced to cut about 420 positions, or 12 percent of
its workforce, in order to keep its expenses in line with slipping income.
Mallett said that cuts in marketing and sales expenses would accompany
the layoffs. In all, the cuts are expected to shave $7 million to $9
million per quarter, beginning in third quarter.
Next quarter, Decker said Yahoo! expects a pro forma loss of $10 million
to nil, or approximately breakeven on a per-share basis.
“We made some decisions that were difficult, but which ultimately balance
the investment in our growth areas with the adjustments to our near-term
business plan to better position Yahoo! for long-term growth,” said chairman
and chief executive Tim Koogle. “While we streamline our business over the
second quarter to become more efficient and align our costs with the current
market environment, we remain steadily focused on developing and delivering
the essential services that will result in Yahoo! becoming the Internet’s
leading global consumer and business services company.”
It’s not all bad news, however, and Mallett pointed to several trends
that he said would enable Yahoo! to continue to be a major media player.
While the company saw a quarter-to-quarter decline in advertisers — from
3,700 to 3,145 — Mallet said it was a result of the company’s efforts to
focus its attention on high-paying clients. New advertisers included Miller
Brewing, Cingular and Restoration Hardware.
Mallett also said Yahoo! is seeing some traction for its new ad sizes by
advertisers like The Gap and Kodak, which generated an average of 150
percent greater clickthrough rates than they had using standard banners on
the portal.
He added that Yahoo! is using the Terms and Conditions for online media
buying recommended to the industry by the American Association of
Advertising Agencies and the Interactive Advertising Bureau, which should
help streamline sales.
Mallett also pointed to Yahoo!’s hiring of traditional media vets as
another way in which Yahoo! plans an ad rebound. In addition to tapping
Reader’s Digest’s Gregory Coleman as executive vice president of North
American operations, Mallet said Yahoo! has snagged Reuters’ David Graves as
senior vice president of Media and Leisure, and Tiana Wimmer, formerly of
American Express, as general manager of Direct Marketing.
“As evidenced by the significant increases in our audience and traffic
figures, Yahoo! continues to be a leader when it comes to attracting and
retaining online consumers,” he said. “The loyalty of our users is one of
our strongest core assets … As we remain focused on building the
Internet’s leading consumer and business services company, the increase in
active registered users demonstrates our unique ability to convert visitors
into members.”
