Yahoo posts quarterly loss
By Bambi Francisco, CBS.MarketWatch.com
Last Update: 4:52 PM ET Oct. 10, 2001
SANTA CLARA (CBS.MW) - Yahoo announced late Wednesday that it posted its fourth straight quarterly loss while revenue fell short of analysts' expectations.
Yahoo (YHOO: news, chart, profile) posted a third-quarter loss of $24.1 million in the third quarter, or 4 cents a share. In last year's third quarter, it had a profit of $47.7 million. After one-time charges were stripped out, Yahoo said it earned $8.4 million, equivalent to 1 cent a share. That matched expectations of 1 cent a share.
But Yahoo generated $166 million in sales in the quarter just ended, vs. the consensus $170.5 million. Quarterly revenue also dropped 43.7 percent from $295 million in the same period a year ago.
To be fair, Yahoo's own revenue goal, issued during the second-quarter conference call in July, was between $160 million and $180 million in the third quarter.
Outlook for Q4 and 2002
Yahoo expects revenue for the fourth quarter 2001 to be between $160 and $180 million, implying a range of $688 to $708 million for the full year 2001.
Analysts currently expect Yahoo to earn 1 cent a share on revenue of $190.81 in the fourth quarter. For the full year, Yahoo is expected to earn 5 cents a share on revenue of $720.44 million.
Yahoo did not outline its outlook for 2002.
For 2002, the current consensus estimate calls for earnings to grow to 11 cents and annual revenue to increase to $849.23 million.
Yahoo rose to 77 cents, or 8 percent, to $10.93 in regular trading.
Positioning against MSN, AOL
Yahoo still commands a leadership position among Internet consumer sites. The good news for Yahoo believers is that Yahoo has remained the number two most visited Web site in the U.S. during the last 12 months, as measured by the number of unique users tracked by Nielsen/NetRatings.
The bad news is that the number of unique users to MSN's site, which has always ranked number three behind Yahoo, is catching up.
According to Nielsen/NetRatings, MSN, Microsoft's (MSFT: news, chart, profile) network of Internet services, had 63.6 million unique users in September vs. 47.5 million in the same period a year ago. Yahoo had 65.7 million last month compared to 58.1 million last year. Nielsen/NetRatings will be releasing its September report on Thursday.
Bambi |
