Yahoo reports profit boost

Yahoo reports profit boost for latest financial quarter, but still lagging way behind Google
Yahoo reports profit boost for latest financial quarter, but still lagging way behind Google

While nobody likes recession-driven redundancies, Yahoo's latest third-quarter profits show that its cost-cutting strategy over the last year has helped to turn the company around.

Yahoo's third quarter profits in 2009 are over treble that for the same quarter last year, with the company having cut more than 2000 jobs over the last year.

Yahoo earned $186m (£113.6m) compared with $54m over the same quarter in 2008.

Yahoo launches ad campaign

Google recently reported record profits, while Yahoo is still struggling to catch-up with its rival.

The company hopes that its new $100m global advertising campaign will help to re-establish its web portal, having also opened up its home page to third-party web services such as Facebook and Hotmail.

"We knew the new management could drive some of the cost out of the system, but we want to start to see what can be done to have the company return to growth," said net industry analyst Olin Gillis.

"This is a company that's still very much in the process of being restructured. It's a mild positive. They're doing what they're supposed to be doing."

Yahoo recently struck a major deal with Microsoft, with that deal set to be finalised in the spring of 2010.

Adam Hartley