(All times are p.m. Eastern)
4:45 Yahoo! Inc. (NASDAQ: YHOO) has just released Q3 earnings and from what I've seen, revenue came in at $1.12 (billion), below the expected $1.15, while EPS is at 11 cents, exactly as forecast.
4:50 The conference call is about to begin. So far, Yahoo! share price seem to be doing a yo-yo dance. Up and down within 2% range of the close.
4:57 Soon the call will begin. I suspect Terry Semel, Yahoo! CEO will start and give an overview, then Susan Decker, Yahoo! CFO will talk more about the numbers. Then Q&A, my favorite part. Stock is down 2.7% in after market trading.
5:00 Apparently, there were some "unanticipated challenges." That's why revenues are down. The company will also roll out a $3 billion stock buyback. Still waiting.
Filling in the time I missed (5:00-5:15) in blue:
Terry is talking: Excited about a number of things happening at Yahoo!, but "I am not satisfied with out financial performance and we intend to improve it." Yahoo! is still a leader in key measures and achieves enviable financial results, he says, but it's not good enough for them. Committed to doing better. Yahoo! will lower Q4 results - yikes. Panama is now live, as of today - yay.
Starting today Yahoo! began inviting advertisers to participate in the new project with the first customer today. Additionally, Semel believes Yahoo! could improve monetization. There will be stages where Yahoo! will invite advertisers in the U.S. to ensure a smooth transition. That would happen over the course of Q4 and early Q107.
The introduction of the marketplace in the U.S. remains on track for Q107 and then it will roll out globally. They received good feedback and are excited about the potential.
Second - shift in market dynamics in graphical advertising. Growth in graphical advertising despite some sectors lowering ad expenditure was good. Yahoo! wants to extend lead in graphical advertising. Yahoo! acquired AdInterax. They intend to increase yield on non-premium inventory.
eBay and Telemundo partnership: eBay is progressing well and is on track for second half for next year. The new home page will also ensure Yahoo! remains attractive for graphical ads.
New revenue opportunities in big growth: social media, video and mobile access. Yahoo! has well established positions in all.
Yahoo! has been a pioneer in social media, better positioned than most realize. The Flickr purchase, Yahoo! Answers which was developed internally, del.icio.us and Yahoo! video have together 100 million users - the biggest social network today. (I guess it's all about how you spin it, right?) 15-24 year old - 30 million. Plan to be a key player there.
Now video - I think I was back by now, but may have missed the beginning: Yahoo! has a large video infrastructure ...
5:15 Of course my Internet connection was down the past 15 min. Terry is talking about being a key player in social networks.
5:19 Talking about video and the acquisition of Jumpcut. Forging partnership like the one yesterday with CBS and CurrentTV. Creating their own TV networks. Monetizing video with more than 14 million unique users.
5:20 Going Mobile (I guess he's talking about the different opportunities lying ahead). Semel is mentioning all the mobile launches of late. Yahoo! has more than 50 partnerships globally to bring Yahoo! to mobile users. Talking about Yahoo! Go and about the ads in Japan and the UK in mobile phones which was recently extended to the US.
5:22 Talking about how Yahoo! is a leader. Focusing on three areas Yahoo! could be good at. Getting back to basics. Moving forward will close the gap in monetizing search ads, social and video and the third core is video.
5:24 Sue is on. Slower pace of growth she says. Ouch.
5:25 Okay, starting with $400 million free cash flow. How it was invested - repurchasing 49 million shares in Q3. Will buy more shares the next three years.
5:27 Second half growth rate are slower than anticipated, they maintain good free cash flow, she says.
5:28 Leading position in graphical ad market causes a larger growth in that business but less. On affiliate - grows nicely (what does nicely mean?) Expect O&O business to outpace affiliate business going forward.
5:30 Happy with search figures and believe they maintain their global share (really?). In email, Yahoo! is leader.
5:31 Panama will be fully operational in 2007 which will cause better monetization and higher growth (no kiddin').
5:32 International growth continues to outpace that of the U.S. in both graphical ads and affiliate. She's off to numbers, but I'm listening to her voice. Very tentative, lots of throat clearing.
5:34 Oh BOY! Revising downward outlook! Ouch! I missed the numbers, will fill them in later. Narrowing cash flow as well!!!
5:35 Summary of financial: Initially expected more growth but still in a strong position. They have the cash, but still don't know what they're going to do with it. I don't think she should have said that. We want to know what they're planning, not that they don't know!
5:37 Decker continues to talk about what they've done (she almost chokes), they've purchased stuff 50 acquisitions. They're not standing still, she says. (Then have plans!)
5:38 Back to Terry and to questions. He thanked all of Yahoo! employees all over the world.
5:39 Jefferies - Launch of Panama - it's now live. He wants to know about the weakness in the Finance vertical. Is there an improvement? Terry: Front end going as of today, marketplace designed for first quarter. The large advertisers themselves have had some problems.
5:41 Mahaney from Citigroup - missed the question. Dan Rosensweig is answering so it's probably about operations and advertising.
5:42 J.P.Morgan - wants quantitative results from Panama. Second about inventory yield. Sue about Panama - financial impact will come one quarter after the launch, that means Q2 2007. Inventory to marketplace - (I think it's Dan) - Yahoo! will serve ads to some of the large companies such as eBay. It should result in great results.
5:45 Goldman Sachs Anthony Noto - about advertising growth again. Sue is answering. I think she's answering. She doesn't want to get into forecasting of sponsored search, they don't expect increased in volume until Panama is launched.
5:47 I missed who asked the question, but it was about EBITDA - he doesn't understand how the projected numbers are possible.
5:48 Again a question regarding auto and Financials - is the weakness spreading to other sectors. Second questions - Panama again - does it look better than expected or what? Sue is answering the first part - she thinks the problems are sector specific. Another issue is that there is more low cost alternatives out there. Panama - enormously good feedback. It's hard to test second order effect she says until it's rolling.
5:50 About Panama and Mobile. Dan is answering about Panama - talking about the front end side - it's more flexible and would have a positive affect. Mobile - they see it as the early days of the Internet. They think Yahoo! is a leader here. Great opportunities on a global basis. Terry is adding a few words about the Mobile. Talking about monetizing the mobile market. A huge share is going to mobile and they want to capitalize on that, build live audiences etc. They're very excited about that.
5:53 I think it's Jeetil Patel from DB asking. Dan is answering about the social side. Yahoo! has assets that no one has that some of them aren't monetized yet like Answers! There will be a transition for a while, he says, but after that he believes they're well positioned to capitalize on social. Sue is jumping in to talk about quality of traffic. They're cleaning up the quality of traffic and want high conversion rates.
5:57 Sue is answering another question regarding Panama. They don't expect a real improvement until Panama is fully launched in the US, again Q2. As for the current environment, she doesn't expect improvement until then.
5:58 Talk about the dynamics driving low search growth. Microsoft couldn't account for all of it. It's significantly below the industry - what are the other factors involved or do you believe it's a market trend? Tough one! Good one!. Sue - overall revenue growth was affected by MSN and China. She insists it's relatively consistent with the trend they're seeing (?)
6:01 Last question about branded growth, which was slow. Early year growth rates weren't sustainable, Sue answers. We don't know if others will perform better or not than Yahoo! in Q4. She feels Yahoo! bridged the gap. Dan is now talking about the engineering aspect of Panama (the second part of the question). Terry adds that some engineering will indeed be back to working on other resources.
Yahoo! shares are up 4.27% in after market trading.
And that was that!











Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
10-17-2006 @ 7:04PM
Gumbo said...
I am sick and tired of stupid flutteing flashing explosive ad banners on the web they are so distracting to my normal reading that they insult my intelligence. I am happy to hear that the ad business has softened. I have noticed less of those stupid ad banners. which is great!! They can advertise as long as they are still pictures or images not like monkeys waving around or clowns grinning with pop out eyes etc.
10-17-2006 @ 7:05PM
Gumbo said...
and those 50 states flutteing for an mortgage agency or a stretched out dog barking etc
10-18-2006 @ 12:55AM
Gary E. Sattler said...
Did anybody else sense more air than words here?
Did anybody else get the image of a bunch of suits in a taxi cab with a driver who doesn't know where he's going?
Does anybody seriously want money hanging on garbage like this?
You can give me your projected answer in Q3,07.
Yeah, I'll wait till then...
NOT!