Yahoo continued to struggle with online ad sales in Q4

Revenue and net income both declined year on year

Yahoo struggled selling both display and search advertising in the fourth quarter, as its revenue and net income both dropped year on year.

Subtracting the commissions paid to partners, Yahoo's revenue fell 3 percent to US$1.17 billion in the quarter ended Dec. 31, missing the $1.19 billion consensus estimate from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. Gross revenue dropped 13 percent to $1.32 billion.

Net income fell 5 percent to $296 million, although earnings per share were flat at $0.24, matching analysts' consensus estimate.

Scott Thompson, the former PayPal president who was recently appointed Yahoo CEO, put a positive spin on the results during a call with press and analysts. The company made progress in the quarter, he said, offering as evidence a 10 percent increase in operating income.

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Yahoo struggled selling both display and search advertising in the fourth quarter, as its revenue and net income both dropped year on year.

Subtracting the commissions paid to partners, Yahoo's revenue fell 3 percent to US$1.17 billion in the quarter ended Dec. 31, missing the $1.19 billion consensus estimate from analysts polled by Thomson Reuters. Gross revenue dropped 13 percent to $1.32 billion.

Net income fell 5 percent to $296 million, although earnings per share were flat at $0.24, matching analysts' consensus estimate.

Scott Thompson, the former PayPal president who was recently appointed Yahoo CEO, put a positive spin on the results during a call with press and analysts. The company made progress in the quarter, he said, offering as evidence a 10 percent increase in operating income.

However, there's "no question" that Yahoo needs to do better, he said. "We need better execution to accelerate time to market and to better monetize the [user] engagement we have," he said.

Thompson was named CEO just three weeks ago and has been on the job only two weeks. He said it was too early to talk about specific changes he plans to make, but said Yahoo will pursue new "revenue streams."

That comment is sure to fuel speculation that Thompson may steer Yahoo into the e-commerce market that he knows so well from his tenure at PayPal, whose revenue grew from $1.8 billion to $4 billion while he was president.

Thompson said he'll focus on bringing "balance" and improvement to key areas of the business, including Yahoo's relationship with end users and advertisers; its ability to make decisions quickly based on data analysis; and the way it invests in current and long-term products.

Thompson feels "a sense of urgency" about mining Yahoo's business data, to help make decisions about areas like product development. "Our data may be Yahoo's single most underrated, underappreciated and under-used asset," he said.

Yahoo must improve its services so that end users increase the time they spend at its sites, and so advertisers increase their spending.

"We need to innovate and disrupt," he said.

CFO Tim Morse said Yahoo is in discussions to restructure its participation in Yahoo Japan and in China's Alibaba Group, but declined to give details.

For the full fiscal year, revenue came in at $5 billion, down 21 percent compared with 2010. Subtracting partner commissions, revenue was $4.4 billion, down 5 percent. Revenue for the full year was impacted in part by Yahoo's search advertising partnership with Microsoft, in which Yahoo pays Microsoft a commission on search ad sales and which includes a change in how Yahoo reports search ad revenue, the company said.

Advertising sales dropped across the board during the quarter for Yahoo. Subtracting commissions, display ad revenue fell 4 percent, while search ad revenue dropped 3 percent. Gross revenue fell 4 percent for display ads and 27 percent for search ads.

Yahoo's online ad sales performance contrasts with the overall market, which has been growing this year. For example, in the U.S. in the third quarter, online ad revenue grew 22 percent, according to the Interactive Advertising Bureau.

The IDG News Service is a Network World affiliate.