Yahoo! reported a continued drop in revenues in the second quarter, down 4 percent from a year earlier to USD 1.084 billion. CEO Marissa Mayer said the company was "not satisfied" with the results and returning to revenue growth remains its "top priority". Excluding traffic acquisition costs, revenue fell 3 percent to USD 1.040 billion. Yahoo recorded growth in search social, mobile, video and native services, but continued to suffer from a decline in the display advertising market, where revenues fell 8 percent to USD 436 million.
Adjusted operating profit fell 7 percent to USD 194 million, excluding USD 53 million in restructuring charges and gains of USD 62 million from selling patents. Net earnings dropped 15 percent to USD 0.26 per share.
Yahoo also signaled that it remains a long-term investor in Chinese group Alibaba. The company said that it asked Alibaba Group for an amendment to their share repurchase agreement and they agreed to reduce the number of shares that Yahoo is required to sell in Alibaba's upcoming IPO, from 208 million to 140 million shares.
Yahoo also confirmed that it will return at least half the proceeds from selling Alibaba shares to shareholders. Yahoo finished June with cash of USD 4.3 billion, down from USD 5 billion three months earlier after it spent USD 719 million on share repurchases.
