Yahoo Slips To Loss On Expenses

(RTTNews) - Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) on Tuesday reported a slip to loss in the second quarter, hurt by one-time expenses as well as traffic acquisition costs. Total revenues climbed 15 percent from a year ago, largely offset by traffic costs, even as growth was seen in the areas of display, mobile and social.

Yahoo's quarterly earnings missed Wall Street estimates, while revenues edged past expectations, with the overall results denoting challenges CEO Marissa Mayer faces in casting the company on a higher growth trajectory.

Mayer said that on the whole, she was pleased with the revenue increase in the quarter, pointing out the 60 percent jump in areas of mobile, video, native advertising and social.

Under Mayer, Yahoo has boosted its digital content and focused on mobile business at a time of competition from Google and Facebook, while its search and display business has continually come under pressure.

Last month, Yahoo won exclusive rights to the National Football League's first Internet-only broadcast of a football game between the Buffalo Bills and Jacksonville Jaguars that will be played in London in October.

During the quarter, Yahoo's display revenue, excluding traffic acquisition costs, rose to $406.7 million from $393.8 million last year. Price-per-ad climbed 10 percent from last year and number of ads sold were up about 9 percent.

The company's search revenue, excluding TAC, dropped to $415.3 million from $427.6 million last year. The number of paid clicks grew about 13 percent and price-per-click increased about 4 percent.

Yahoo said its traffic acquisition costs jumped to $200 million from $44 million last year.

Yahoo's smaller business of mobile revenue climbed to $252 million from $163 million last year, and momentum was evident in Mavens revenue - including video ads and packages, and Tumblr ads and fees.

Overall, Yahoo reported a second-quarter net loss of $21.6 million or $0.02 per share, compared with a profit of $269.7 million or $0.26 per share last year.

Excluding the one-time items, adjusted earnings for the quarter were $0.16 per share, compared with $0.37 per share a year ago. On average, 35 analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $0.18 per share for the quarter. Analysts' estimates typically exclude special items.

Yahoo's total revenues for the quarter were up at $1.24 billion, compared with $1.08 billion in the prior year.

Excluding traffic acquisition costs, quarterly revenues were marginally higher at $1.043 billion. Thirty-four analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $1.030 billion.

Recently, Yahoo announced initial filing with the SEC over plans to spin off its remaining stake in Chinese e-commerce company Alibaba Group Holding Ltd (BABA) via a newly formed company, Aabaco Holdings Inc.

The spin-off is expected to be completed in the fourth quarter of 2015, after which Aabaco Holdings will own its 15 percent stake in Alibaba, currently valued at about $32 billion.

YHOO closed Tuesday at $39.73, up $0.19 or 0.48%, on a volume of 14.7 million shares on the Nasdaq. In after hours, the stock dropped $0.62 or 1.55% at $39.11. In the past year, the shares have traded in the range of $32.93 - $52.62.