07/11 16:58

Yahoo Had 2nd-Qtr Loss as Advertising Sales Declined (Update1)
By Adam Steinhauer


Sunnyvale, California, July 11 (Bloomberg) -- Yahoo! Inc., owner of the most-used Web site for searching the Internet, had a second-quarter loss after sales of advertising on its Web pages declined.

The loss totaled $48.5 million, or 9 cents a share, compared to net income of $53.3 million, or 9 cents, a year earlier. Sales declined to $182.2 million from $273.0 million, the company said in a statement distributed by Business Wire.

Chairman and Chief Executive Terry Semel, who replaced Tim Koogle in May, must find a way to turn around Yahoo's eroding revenue, as a slowing U.S. economy trims ad sales in all media and as hundreds of smaller Internet companies have gone out of business. Dot-com companies account for about a third of Yahoo's advertisers, analysts have said.

Yahoo would have had a profit of $8.71 million, or 1 cent a share, excluding acquisition-related and restructuring costs, stock-based compensation and some other items. The Sunnyvale, California-based company said in April that it expected profit to be about break-even on that basis, which doesn't conform to generally accepted accounting principles.

Excluding the same items, Yahoo would have earned $69.1 million, or 11 cents a share, a year earlier.

Yahoo shares rose as high as $18.90 in after-hours trading. They had fallen 80 cents to $17.03 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. The company released its financial results after the close of regular U.S. trading.

(Yahoo executives will hold a conference call on July 11 at 2 p.m. California time to discuss second-quarter earnings. The dial- in number is 1-800-348-6399.)

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