SAN FRANCISCO (AP) – Yahoo’s revenue is still evaporating three years into CEO Marissa Mayer’s turnaround attempt, magnifying worries that the Internet company will be stuck in a financial sinkhole after spinning off its lucrative stake in China’s Alibaba Group.
A third-quarter report released Tuesday showed Yahoo took another step backward during the summer as its revenue slipped 8 percent from the same time last year to $1 billion. The figure reflects how much revenue that Yahoo keeps after paying its advertising partners – a bill that has been climbing since the company struck a deal late last year to serve as the built-in search engine in the U.S. on the Firefox browser.
It marked the ninth time in the past 11 quarters that Yahoo’s net revenue has declined or remained unchanged from the previous year. Meanwhile, revenue at Yahoo rivals Google, Facebook and Twitter has been steadily surging as advertiser spend more of their marketing budgets on the Internet. Analysts are projecting third-quarter revenue increases ranging from 14 percent to 55 percent at Google, Facebook and Twitter when those companies report their results during the next two weeks.
Yahoo’s earnings also plunged 99 percent to $76 million, or 8 cents per share, during the three months ended in September. The steep decline reflected huge windfall that Yahoo pocketed from selling some of its stock in the Chinese company’s initial public offering. If not for expenses covering employee stock options and other options, Yahoo said it would have earned 15 cents per share to match the estimates of analysts surveyed by Zacks Investment Research.
Yahoo’s stock dipped 38 cents to $32.45 in extended trading after the numbers came out.