Release Out. Results and guidance as expected: crappy, but not terrible. EPS in line. Revenue low end of guidance range. EBITDA low end of range. Guidance weak. 10%+ of workforce will be fired in Q4 (1500+). Employees will be notified in the next few weeks.
Revenue weakness across the whole company: worst on the affiliate network, as expected, but still only 9% growth on owned-and-operated properties. Fee revenue flat.
Some good news here: Pageview growth a strong 17% year over year, and search query growth (10%) and revenue per search (+20%) good. Europe and Asia have weakened severely, however. And as Jerry noted on the call, the US only started to get bad right at the end of the quarter.
Call was at 5PM/2PM. Details and webcast here.
We followed along in the chat below, and we'll post transcript later. Please click to participate.
Preview
We expect Yahoo's results to be crappy. Not godawful, but crappy. Anecdotally, display advertising has been weakening through the quarter, and we can't imagine Yahoo's Q3 or Q4 outlook will be encouraging. The big news on the call, of course, will be layoffs: Specifically, how many and when. The scuttlebutt is that Yahoo will fire about 1500 people. This is a big cut, but we still think it's too small. If Yahoo says it will cut 1500 and reduces its outlook for Q4, investors will likely be disappointed.
Details:
Gross Revenue: $1.78-$1.98 billion guidance
Net Revenue: $1.37 billion consensus
Operating Income: $65-$85 guidance
EBITDA: $405-$465 guidance
EPS: $0.09 consensus
Outlook:
- 2008 Q4 Consensus: EPS $0.14, Net Revs $1.51B (Full-Year Gross Revenue guidance: $7.35-$7.85 billion)
- 2009 Consensus: EPS $0.62, Net Revenue $6.13 billion.
