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Yahoo has posted its second quarter financial report just one day before the one-year anniversary Marissa Mayer’s start date as CEO. The results were mixed with earnings up 46 percent but falling revenues that failed to meet expectations.
Jessica Guynn with the Los Angeles Times commented, “It’s not such a happy anniversary for Marissa Mayer, who just polished off her first year at the helm of Yahoo. Shares of Yahoo are down 2% after the company released a second-quarter earnings report that showed revenue fell 7% year over year to $1.14 billion, giving investors very little to yodel about…. Yahoo’s earnings did rise 46% but that was due to its investment in Chinese Internet company Alibaba.”
Bloomberg BusinessWeek’s Brad Stone observed, “Mayer, as Yahoo’s fifth boss in four years, has proven herself a steady steward so far. Shares are up more than 70 percent during her tenure, buoyed for the most part by an ongoing stock buyback and by the rising value of the company’s 23 percent stake in Chinese powerhouse Alibaba Group, which could stage an IPO this year. Still, as Bloomberg News notes in its one-year-later assessment, advertisers remain unsold on the Yahoo turnaround and analysts are nervous about Mayer’s acquisition spree of 17 startups, including the pricey $1.1 billion purchase of blog network Tumblr.”
CNET quoted Mayer, who stated, “I’m encouraged by Yahoo!’s performance in the second quarter. Our business saw continued stability, and we launched more products than ever before, introducing a significant new product almost every week. From the new Yahoo! News, the new Yahoo! Sports app, the redesigned Yahoo! search, the new Flickr, the new Yahoo! Mail for tablet, the Yahoo! Weather app, our new Yahoo! app with Summly – this quarter drove tremendous improvements in our product line and our users responded with increased usage and engagement.”
The Wall Street Journal’s Emily Chasan noted, “The surprise in Yahoo Inc. ’s second-quarter earnings may have been the company’s live video conference and real-time tweets. Breaking the staid tradition of executives huddled around a speakerphone, Yahoo Chief Executive Marissa Mayer and Chief Financial Officer Ken Goldman explained their quarterly results from a studio with wood paneling and exposed brick, soft lighting and a large flat-screen monitor behind them.”
