Geocities beat the estimates -(so in a subtle fashion Yahoo got a better deal in their purchase) - Usually fat and conjecture get built into a stock price before earnings - so if the earnings stink, the stock gets whacked twice as hard in despair! now that won't happen for YHOO because of Geocities. Personally I think we are in good shape owning YHOO for the next few months! Also here is another posting of earnings:
Yahoo! Reports $16M Quarter Profit
By JORDAN LITE
Associated Press Writer
SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- Yahoo! Inc. [Nasdaq:YHOO - news], the second-most popular Internet destination, reported a sharply higher first-quarter profit of $16 million Wednesday that beat Wall Street forecasts, helped by a surge of Web visitors and new deals with online businesses.
Yahoo!, one of the few Internet companies that actually makes money, said its profit came to 7 cents a share in the three months ended March 31. That was up from a profit of $3.3 million, or 2 cents a share, in the first quarter of 1998.
Excluding one-time charges, the Santa Clara, Calif-.based company would have earned $25.1 million, or 11 cents a share, in the recent quarter. Analysts surveyed by First Call had predicted earnings of 8 cents a share.
Quarterly revenues nearly tripled to $86.1 million from $30.6 million as the number of visitors to its Web sites grew 5.4 percent in February alone. Yahoo! struck numerous new deals with online businesses, including retailers who paid for links on Yahoo!'s Web site.
Yahoo! said it is well positioned for further growth with its recent purchase of broadcast.com (Nasdaq:BCST - news), the top provider of TV and radio programming on the Web, and its purchase of GeoCities (Nasdaq:GCTY - news), which hosts Web pages created by individuals.
''We expect both of these acquisitions, which are not reflected in our first quarter results, to add substantially to the breadth of services we offer our global users, and advertising, merchant and business partners,'' said Yahoo! chief executive Tim Koogle.
Jim Balderston, an industry analyst with Redwood City-based Zona Research, said that big Internet companies like Yahoo! -- which has a market value of nearly $42 billion -- will have to begin generating bigger revenue if they are to maintain an investor enthusiasm that's pushed the Dow over 10,000 and made such businesses worth much more than they are actually producing.
''Right now Yahoo! and a lot of the Internet stocks still enjoy valuation based on infinite possibilities,'' Balderston said. ''At some point those are going to have to become probabilities and plausibilities.
The report was released Wednesday after the close of financial markets, where shares fell 3 percent, or $6.43 3/4 at $208.43 3/4 on the Nasdaq Stock Market. But in after-hours trading, Yahoo! shares rose $3.87 1/2 to $212.50, according to Instinet.
Yahoo!, whose sites include a range of features from chat rooms to news and search services, announced a deal Monday to deliver its content and services to hand-held computers and devices for viewing the Web on TV.
Under the deal with Online Anywhere, Yahoo! will provide e-mail, personal calendars, weather and stock quotes. Online Anywhere's technology automatically formats the information to fit whatever device the subscriber is using, be it a large-screen television or a pocket-size, hand-held computer.
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