Yahoo Q4 Revenue Up, Profits Down

First full year revenue growth in four years boosts stock in afterhours trading

By George Winslow -- Broadcasting & Cable, 1/28/2013 6:37:52 PM

Yahoo reported fourth quarter and full year 2012 earnings that were generally well received on Wall Street, thanks to increased revenue and some other improved metrics that gave investors hope that the company was moving in the right direction.

At 6:30 p.m. ET, shares were up 1.67% to $20.65 in afterhours trading. .

In a prepared statement, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer, who had been hired last summer to revitalize the firm, noted that revenues were up for the first time in four years.

"During the quarter we made progress by growing our executive team, signing key partnerships including those with NBC Sports and CBS Television, and launching terrific mobile experiences for Yahoo Mail and Flickr," she noted in a statement. "At the same time, we achieved tremendous internal transformation in the culture, energy and execution of the Company."

During the 4^th quarter, revenue increased by 2% to $1.3 billion and EBITDA grew by 8% to $509 million while GAAP income decreased by 22% to $109 million from a year earlier.

For the year, the company reported a very a slight increase in revenue to $4.99 billion. Increased costs did, however, reduce GAAP income from operations. They fell from $800 million in 2011 to $566 million in 2012.

GAAP net income however rose from $1.05 billion in 2011 to $3.95 billion in 2012, thanks to sales of Alibaba shares.

Management cited a number of examples of its efforts to turn the company around, including increased search revenue and paid click revenue as well as some new products and a number of recent alliances with companies like NBC Sports, CBS Television Distribution and Werner Media.

Yahoo did report declines in display revenue of 3% in the fourth quarter.