Yahoo! has met earnings expectations, but its fourth quarter sales fell short of estimates. The company has now cut its outlook for 2001.
The portal posted a fourth-quarter profit of US$80.2 million, or 13 cents a share, on sales of US$310.8 million after the bell Wednesday.
But the earnings were almost an afterthought because Wall Street was awaiting the company's outlook. Yahoo officials told investors to expect sales of only US$1.2 billion to US$1.3 billion in fiscal 2001, below previous estimates of US$1.42 billion.
Company officials said Yahoo expects to post a profit of between 4 cents to 7 cents a share in its first quarter, dramatically lower than the current consensus estimate of 13 cents a share.
On a conference call with analysts, CEO Tim Koogle said the company was hurt by a slowing economy and advertising market. Koogle said the company's guidance was conservative, and that he expected a rebound in the second half.
Despite the gloomy outlook, analysts questioned Yahoo's outlook for the first quarter and asked whether officials were laying out a worst case scenario just to beat expectations in upcoming quarters.
"We are trying to be prudent managers," said Koogle. "We are trying to gauge things just like you. We are trying to lay out a plan that's very prudent."
On the advertising front, CFO Susan Decker said pure-play dot-com customers accounted for roughly 33 percent of sales in the fourth quarter, down from 40 percent in the third quarter. Decker said dot-com spending decelerated faster than the company expected. Officials said ad rates held, but the company did see pricing pressure on the low end.
Koogle said the company will continue to invest in new businesses, while balancing costs. It will also continue to expand into the corporate market. Koogle mentioned "subscription based premium services," but didn't give projections on potential revenue gains.
Yahoo said it averaged more than 900 million page view a day in December, comfortably above the 865 million to 880 million expected by analysts.
It recorded more than 180 million unique users in December, up from 120 million in the year-ago period and more than 60 million registered users logged on in December, up from 36 million last year.
