New York: Internet giant Yahoo! has posted a profit of USD 153 million (Rs 693 crore) in the quarter ended December 2009 on the back of improving advertising market.
In the year-ago period, the company had a net loss of USD 303 million, Yahoo! said in a statement.
Yahoo! posted a revenue of USD 1.73 billion in the fourth quarter of 2009, down 4 percent from a year ago. However, compared to previous quarter, revenues grew by 10 percent.
The company's revenue from display ads, which are core to
its business, jumped 26 per cent over the previous quarter.
Online search ads, inched up 4 percent - the first quarter-on-quarter increase since the third quarter of 2008.
"The fourth quarter marked a strong finish to 2009, which was a transformative year for Yahoo!," the company's chief executive officer Carol Bartz said.
"We beat the high end of our revenue guidance, saw demand
for premium display advertising improve significantly, and grew Owned & Operated search advertising revenue sequentially for the first time since the third quarter of 2008."
Yahoo!, which has been facing competition from rival Google Inc. The company has reportedly lost share in the search-engine market after entering into a deal with Microsoft Corp last year, to divest some of its search-engine technology.
PTI
First Published: Wednesday, January 27, 2010, 15:53