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Technology Stocks : Altaba Inc. (formerly Yahoo) -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Hiram Walker who wrote (12221)	7/8/1998 6:15:00 PM
From: tonyt	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 27307

Yahoo! Tops Analysts' Estimates, Announces a 2-for-1 Stock Split An INTERACTIVE JOURNAL News Roundup Yahoo! Inc.'s profit topped analysts' estimates as revenue increased 192% over the year-ago period. Separately, the company said its board of directors approved a 2-for-1 common stock split and that it has entered into an agreement for a $250 million private placement of common stock to Softbank Holdings Inc. The private placement increases Softbank's stock in the company to about 31%. For the second quarter ended June 30, the Santa Clara, Calif., Internet-directory service reported a net loss of $36 million, or 81 cents a share, compared with a net loss of $21.6 million, or 50 cents a share, in the year-ago quarter. Both quarters included charges. The most recent quarter included a $44.1 million charge related to the acquisition of Viaweb Inc.; excluding charges, Yahoo's earnings were $8.1 million, or 15 cents a share. That topped the consensus estimate of analysts surveyed by First Call for net income of nine cents a share. The year-ago quarter, meanwhile, included a charge of $21.2 million related to a pact with Visa International Inc. Excluding the year-ago charge, Yahoo had a net loss of $300,000, or one cent a share. Revenue, meanwhile, shot up 192% to $41.2 million from $14.1 million in the second quarter of 1997. Shares of Yahoo fell $4.8125 to $186.1875 on the Nasdaq Stock Market Wednesday. The results were released after the close of trading. In after-hours dealings, its shares were up $1. The company said its traffic grew to an average of 115 million page views per day during June, compared with 95 million page views per day in the final month of the first quarter and 38 million in the second quarter of last year. Yahoo also announced that its registered-user base grew to more than 18 million members, compared to more than 12 million in March. "As always, we are continuing to focus on building our strong brand, delivering quality content and services, and aggressively growing our global audience as well as our advertising and commerce revenue," said Tim Koogle, Yahoo's president and chief executive officer. In posting its earnings, Yahoo became the first member of the high-flying Internet-stock club to post results since the sector's recent take-off. Because Yahoo consistently ranks among the most heavily-trafficked of the Internet-navigation sites, its performance has been viewed as a barometer for the rest of the sector and for the health of Internet advertising. Yahoo last year became the first well-known Internet concern to turn a small profit; some analysts worried about the dramatic surge in Internet stocks have said they're comfortable recommending Yahoo because of its attention to profitability as it grows. Yahoo's shares have been extremely volatile of late, falling $8.25 in Nasdaq trading Tuesday as profit-taking took back some of the $26.375 they gained Monday. Shares of Yahoo climbed as high as $207.50, a 52-week high, near the opening bell Tuesday before retreating later in the session. Even given Tuesday's pullback, shares of Yahoo have nearly tripled since Dec. 31 -- and last month alone, the shares surged 44%. All this has left many Wall Street analysts, who are accustomed to valuing companies on multiples of earnings and revenues, to sit back and ponder what this all means. Some stock pickers argue that Yahoo's valuation can be justified on the basis of the company's surging revenue growth -- up 242% last year. Part of the fuel behind Yahoo's meteoric rise was speculation -- which proved correct -- that the company was planning a stock split, following in the steps of firms such as EarthLink Networks Inc., MindSpring Enterprises Inc. and Lycos Inc. A split has the effect of making a stock more affordable to those who prefer lower-priced stocks to higher-priced ones, but, beyond that, a split has no effect on the economic value of an overall enterprise. Internet-directory services, like Yahoo, survive almost entirely on advertising and electronic-commerce dollars. They are trying to transform their sites into major gateways onto the Internet for consumers, or "portal" sites. The second quarter bought major vindication for these companies' efforts to become Internet hubs: In June, General Electric Co.'s NBC television network said it would take a 4.99% stake in CNET Inc. and a 19% stake in CNET's Snap! portal; and Walt Disney Co. announced plans to take a 43% stake in Infoseek Corp.