14 DAY TRIAL // The Sunnyvale-based company Yahoo has published its financial results for the first quarter of 2008, reporting revenues of no less than $1,818 million, an operating income of $121 million and compensation expense of $433 million. According to the report, the marketing services revenues brought $1,572 million in the first quarter of 2008, which represents an increase of 7 percent in comparison with the same period of the last year. The revenues showed a 9 percent increase from $1,672 million reported in Q1 2007.
"As outlined in our investor presentation, we believe we can significantly accelerate our revenue growth, return to our historically high margins, and double our operating cash flow by 2010. This quarter's solid performance underscores the fact that we are executing on that plan. Yahoo! is beginning to realize the benefits of the very substantial and deliberate long-term investments we've made to capitalize on the opportunities ahead in display and to recapture momentum in search," said Jerry Yang, co-founder and chief executive officer, Yahoo! Inc.
Giving these unexpected financial results, the Redmond-based software giant Microsoft should rethink its Yahoo acquisition strategy and probably improve the bid, just like the Yahoo officials demanded. However, we're still expecting to see Microsoft's new move after Yahoo announced the deal with Google which will bring the Mountain View-company's advertising platform on the Yahoo Search SERP.
"The heart of Yahoo!'s strategy to win is the simple proposition that if we are the starting point for the most users and provide the most comprehensive, easiest-to-use, 'must-buy' platform for advertisers, we can drive the growth in volume and the improvement in yield we need to accelerate growth in revenues and operating cash flow. That, in turn, we believe will deliver attractive value to our stockholders," said Sue Decker, president, Yahoo! Inc.