Yahoo Logs Flat Second-Quarter Revenue

Yahoo on Tuesday posted mixed second-quarter financial results that missed the estimates on the top line though bested them on per-share profit, which came in at 27 cents when certain items are excluded, about 4 cents more than expected.

Revenue for the quarter was $1.08 billion, while analysts expected something closer to $1.1 billion. Revenue was about flat year-over-year, and net income fell 4 percent to $226.6 million.

Yahoo stock fell a nickel during the regular session and was up a dime after the closing bell when its financial results were revealed.

The company discussed the results Tuesday afternoon, though Marissa Mayer, who took over as CEO on Tuesday, did not participate in a conference call with analysts that was instead led by Yahoo CFO Tim Morse.

Yahoo is in the midst of a turnaround, and eMarketer on Tuesday released data suggesting things could get worse for the pioneering Internet company as Facebook becomes an advertising juggernaut.

Yahoo's overall share of the U.S. online ad market reached 15.7 percent in 2009 but had fallen to 9.5 percent last year and will fall to 7.4 percent this year, according to eMarketer. The online ad market overall is expected to rise 23 percent to $39.5 billion this year.

As Yahoo's online ad revenue stagnates at about $3 billion annually through 2014, Facebook's will swell from $1.7 billion in 2011 to $3.7 billion in 2014, according to eMarketer. Twitter and LinkedIn also are expected to grow their ad revenue at the expense of Yahoo much more so than at the expense of Google, Microsoft or AOL.

Yahoo's release of financial data Tuesday also included a recap of the quarter's highlights, the first of which was the appointment of Mayer.

Also during the quarter Yahoo added Daniel Loeb, Harry Wilson and Michael Wolf to its board and made Fred Amoroso board chairman. It also struck a deal making CNBC the premier content source for Yahoo Finance and struck a global distribution and marketing agreement with Spotify's on-demand music service.

Yahoo's engagement metrics also showed mixed results, the most glaring negative being a 17 percent drop in "U.S. core search," which Morse blamed on tough comparisons, given that last year there was a spike associated with the search for news about the killing of Osama bin Laden.

Its "media properties" metric also took a hit, down 10 percent from a year ago, and Morse again blamed difficult comparisons due to last year's royal wedding.

Morse didn't give specific guidance about the current quarter, though he expressed confidence that the Olympics and a U.S. presidential election will bode well for the company.