Yahoo! logins into black; posts $153 mn Q4 profit

Internet giant Yahoo! has posted a profit of $153 million (Rs 693 crore) in the quarter ended December 2009 on the back of improving advertising market.

In the year-ago period, the company had a net loss of $303 million, Yahoo! said in a statement.

Yahoo! posted a revenue of $1.73 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009, down 4 per cent from a year ago. However, compared to previous quarter, revenues grew by 10 per cent.

The company's revenue from display ads, which are core to its business, jumped 26 per cent over the previous quarter. Online search ads, inched up 4 per cent - the first quarter-on-quarter increase since the third quarter of 2008.

"The fourth quarter marked a strong finish to 2009, which was a transformative year for Yahoo!," the company's chief executive officer Carol Bartz said.

"We beat the high end of our revenue guidance, saw demand for premium display advertising improve significantly, and grew Owned & Operated search advertising revenue sequentially for the first time since the third quarter of 2008."

Yahoo!, which has been facing competition from rival Google Inc. The company has reportedly lost share in the search-engine market after entering into a deal with Microsoft Corp last year, to divest some of its search-engine technology.

Internet firm expects its revenue in the range of $1.57 billion to $1.67 billion in the first quarter of 2010. Further, the company is estimating income from its operations in the range of $90 million to $110 million in the same period.

"Our business has positive momentum and we feel good as we head into 2010," Bartz said, adding "we are pleased that the midpoint of our Q1 revenue outlook marks the first quarter of year-over-year growth in six quarters".

For the full year 2009, Yahoo!'s net income rose to $598 million compared to $419 million last year. While the company's revenue fell to $6.46 billion in the year ended December 31, 2009 from $7.2 billion in 2008.