Marissa Mayer on Yahoo Earnings: ‘We Are Not Satisfied’

Yahoo delivered another middling earnings report

marissa mayer yahoo
Marissa Mayer

Yahoo’s second quarter earnings fell short of analyst expectations, and revenue declined for yet another quarter, prompting the CEO Marissa Mayer to express her frustration Tuesday. Yahoo reported revenue of $1.04 billion, a three percent drop from the same quarter a year ago. It reported earnings of $0.37, a slight improvement, but less than the $0.38 analysts expected.

“Our top priority is revenue growth and by that measure, we are not satisfied with our Q2 results,” Mayer said in the company’s earnings release. “While several areas showed strength, their growth was offset by declines.”

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Display advertising revenue continues to fall, undercutting one of Yahoo’s chief sources of revenue. The company has tried to offset those declines by investing in new mobile products, such as its News Digest, as well as its video platform Yahoo Screen.

Mayer argued video advertising would replace display advertising on the company’s earnings call, which was an exercise in willful optimism. Despite “short-term setbacks in pursuit of growth,” Mayer has “never been more confident” in the company’s future.

In a confident defense of the company’s trajectory during her two years at the helm, Mayer cited overhauls of mobile products, growth in mobile users and investments in new advertising platforms and video.  Whether investors feel the same way remains unclear, as the stock has remained within a percentage point or two of where it closed at the end of the day.

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This should be a busy summer for Yahoo, as Alibaba, the Chinese e-commerce giant Yahoo owns a stake in, plans to go public in August. Yahoo is expected to sell a significant amount of its shares, but has requested Alibaba amend its share repurchase agreement so that it does not need to sell as many.

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