Yahoo's Quarter Net Tops Expectations
Yahoo! Inc. blew past third-quarter earnings expectations, driven by increasing traffic at its popular World Wide Web site and tighter expense controls.</br></br>The Santa Clara, Calif., search and directory business reported net income of $16.7 million, or 15 cents a diluted share, compared with $681,000, or one cent a diluted share, for the year-earlier period. Analysts' earnings consensus estimate was nine cents a share, according to First Call.</br></br>Yahoo's revenue tripled to $53.6 million from $18.1 million; analysts had expected revenue of about $45 million.</br></br>Yahoo's site has become one of the most-traveled spots on the Web, and the company attained profitability earlier than most of its rivals. Despite the relatively slow summer season, the company said it increased its daily page views -- defined as one electronic page of information displayed in response to a user request -- 25% to 144 million in September, compared with 115 million in June. In addition, registrations at Yahoo properties -- where users give the company detailed information to use its services -- grew by seven million to 25 million in the quarter.</br></br>"We are really starting to see the law of big numbers," said Tim Koogle, Yahoo president and chief executive officer. "We are pleased with the growth across the entire business."