Yahoo! announced its earnings for the fourth quarter of 2009 today. Revenues came in at $1.7 billion, which was down 4% compared to a year ago but up 10% compared to the third quarter.
Profits were up. Way up.
Income came in at $119 million, compared to a *loss* of $278 million in Q4 2008. Net income diluted per share came in at $0.11. It would have been $0.15 if not for charges related to the aforementioned deal with Microsoft.
"The fourth quarter marked a strong finish to 2009, which was a transformative year for Yahoo!," said Yahoo! Chief Executive Officer Carol Bartz.
2009 was indeed transformative. At the beginning of the year, Bartz joined the company as CEO. The search deal with Microsoft was struck in the summer. About one month later, Yahoo!'s focus on their media properties was pushed into high gear with a brand new advertising campaign. These effort seem to have literally paid off.
Yahoo! anticipates the good news to keep on rolling this year.
"Our business has positive momentum and we feel good as we head into 2010," said Bartz. "We're pleased that the midpoint of our Q1 revenue outlook marks the first quarter of year-over-year growth in six quarters."
Wall Street likes the earnings and seems to be hopeful about the prospect of what's to come. After hours trading was up 2.25% at the time of this post.
