Yahoo slightly missed its estimates in the fourth quarter, posting revenue of $1.18 billion and earnings of 30 cents. Wall Street was expecting Yahoo to earn 29 cents per share with $1.19 billion in revenue. That compares to $1.2 billion a year ago, due to declines in display advertising.
Yahoo Slightly Misses on Q4 Revenue, but Who Cares? Because Alibaba Spinoff!
Also because Wall Street has the focus of a gnat.
There was weakness all over the map in Yahoo’s results, but none of that mattered today, since Yahoo said it would spin off the rest of its stake in China’s Alibaba Group, which will result in a tax-free distribution to its investors. After declining yesterday by 3 percent, shares of the Silicon Valley Internet giant rose on the news, up nearly more than 7.5 percent in after-hours trading.
Shareholders have been pressing CEO Marissa Mayer to do this, since the company had paid a huge tax bill on its previous sale of Alibaba stock, some $3 billion. The move leaves Mayer with less money to spend on acquisitions — although she still has over $10 billion in cash and a strong stock to work with.
That said, Yahoo is a weak company still, despite her tireless turnaround efforts.
Mayer did not see it that way, touting $254 million in mobile revenue, despite it being much lower than her rivals. “I’m pleased to report that our performance in Q4 and in 2014 continues to show stability in our core business,” she said in a statement. “Our mobile strategy and focus has transformed Yahoo and yielded significant results.”
Later, she explained it all for you on a call with Wall Street analysts.
This article originally appeared on Recode.net.
