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Yahoo revenue below estimates as company eyes US$31 billion Alibaba spin-off

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Marissa Meyer has defended the performance of Yahoo's emerging businesses like Tumblr. Photo: AP

Yahoo forecast lower-than-expected revenue for the current quarter as it struggles to revive its core online advertising business and spends more to attract users to its websites.

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Shares of Yahoo were marginally down at US$39.34 in after-market trading.

Yahoo has been developing content for its mobile platform to drive user engagement and ad sales as its core online advertising business struggles in the face of stiff competition from Google and Facebook.

Traffic acquisition costs (TAC), the amount Yahoo spends to attract users to Yahoo websites, rose to US$200.2 million in the second quarter ended June 30, from US$43.8 million a year earlier.

Total revenue, after deducting fees paid to partner websites, was flat at US$1.04 billion.

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Chief financial officer Ken Goldman said the company expects TAC to grow for the next few quarters.

"Their core business has been struggling and they've done relatively little to fix it and you could argue that there is not much that they can do," Pivotal Research Group analyst Brian Wieser told Reuters.

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