Will Carol Bartz sell Yahoo’s search business to Microsoft? Analysts asked the question time and again after Bartz delivered Yahoo’s financial results to Wall Street for the first time since becoming chief executive this month.
Time and again, Bartz said she had not yet made up her mind. If anything, Bartz suggested that breaking off the search business would not be easy and that any decision would not come soon.
‘‘It is my job to make sure that as a company we look at anything that makes sense long term for the company and creates shareholder value,’’ Bartz said during a conference call with analysts Tuesday. ‘‘So yes, everything is on the table.’’ But she added: ‘‘This is not a company that needs to be pulled apart and left for the chickens.’’ While Bartz delivered Yahoo’s mixed financial results, the fourth quarter was the end of Jerry Yang’s turbulent 18-month tenure as chief executive.
Yahoo swung to a loss during the quarter, as sales declined slightly because of weakness in the online display ad business. The company also recorded a number of one-time charges. But cost-cutting efforts, including sizable layoffs, helped Yahoo top analysts’ expectations for profitability. And the results were in line with forecasts Yahoo had made three months earlier.
‘‘Delivering on profitability expectations is a real achievement in this environment,’’ Bartz said.
Yahoo reported a net loss of $303 million, or 22 cents a share, compared with a profit of $206 million, or 15 cents a share, a year ago. Yahoo said it incurred $108 million in charges related to severance of employees and $488 million in write-downs of some of its European assets.
After adjusting for those and other charges, Yahoo said it had a profit of $238 million, or 17 cents a share, up from 13 cents a share a year ago, and above the 12 cents a share expected by analysts.
Yahoo said that its revenue of $1.8 billion was down about 1 percent from $1.83 billion a year ago. Net revenue, which excludes commissions Yahoo pays to advertising partners, was $1.37 billion, down from $1.4 billion a year ago, and in line with analysts’ estimates.
Some investors were bracing for worse, and Yahoo’s shares rose about 5 percent in after-hours trading, after the company’s report, to $11.93.
‘‘They didn’t bleed as much as the very bearish side feared,’’ said Martin Pyykkonen, an analyst with Wunderlich Securities. ‘‘I don’t think this is a quick fix and the economy is going to add headwinds to that.’’ Yahoo’s results reflected the continued shift by marketers toward forms of advertising that deliver immediate and measurable results.
Search advertising, which marketers use to attract customers to their sites, grew about 11 percent, while display advertising declined about 2 percent.
Those results suggest that other online publishers that rely heavily on dis play ads, including AOL, are likely to suffer as well.
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