Tuesday October 10, 1:55 pm Eastern Time
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Reach Out and Yahoo! Someone
By Nico Detourn
Announcements of Yahoo!'s (Nasdaq: YHOO - news) quarterly financial results have, for
the last few years, served as the official kick-off to earnings season, especially for Internet-related firms and so-called New
Economy companies. But the release of its third-quarter numbers after the market closes today will be one of Yahoo!'s most
highly anticipated announcements yet, as Net watchers look to this bellwether for clues to how the online wind blows.
For weeks, as analysts have vied to outdo each other's gloomy prophesies, Internet companies either directly or indirectly
dependent on advertising have been warning of revenue and earnings shortfalls due to an industry-wide ad slowdown. Though
Yahoo! has neither warned nor guided expectations lower, it has not gone untouched by all this.
The company's CEO, Tim Koogle, acknowledged at a recent industry conference that advertising cutbacks by struggling
dot-coms have taken away some of the quarter's "upside." He nevertheless said expectations for the quarter hadn't changed
and that he saw no cause for concern. And so what Yahoo! reveals later today is going to matter, though just how it matters
may take some sorting out.
In Monday's Rule Maker portfolio, Matt Richey (TMF Verve) offered a more comprehensive overview of Yah oo!'s situation
in anticipation of today's announcement. But while Matt is the Fool's resident Yahoo-ologist, not even he knew the company
would announce yet another new service this morning ahead of its quarterly results.
1-800-MY-YAHOO
Saying that billions of minutes have already been spent on its existing free voice services, Yahoo! introduced a new suite of
voice-enabled services the company will integrated across its various properties.
Yahoo! by Phone will let users listen over the phone to their personalized Yahoo! content including e-mail, stock quotes, news
headlines, sports scores, and weather. The free service is accessed by calling 1-800-MY-YAHOO. Yahoo!'s mail service will
also offer free voice mail using the same toll-free number. Users are given a personal 10-digit mailbox number to access the
menu-driven service.
In addition to offering Yahoo! content by phone, the new services include an upgrade to Yahoo! Messenger, an instant
messaging tool, with a new "call" button that can be used to make free long-distance and local calls from PCs to any phone
number in the U.S. It's amazing what a little button can do.
Yahoo! has partnered with Net2Phone (Nasdaq: NTOP - news), whose Voice over IP (VoIP) network and voice optimization
will be used for the new services. Net2Phone's service will also be promoted throughout Yahoo!'s properties, and the company
will participate in Yahoo!'s e-mail direct marketing program.
Net2Phone is a leader in VoIP services, and in late March Yahoo! made a $150 million equity investment in the company.
Other Net2Phone investors and partners include Microsoft (Nasdaq: MSFT - news) and America Online (NYSE: AOL -
news) -- which have also incorporated the company's technology into some of their services -- as well as AT&T (NYSE: T -
news), which leads a consortium with a substantial equity and voting stake in the company.
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