Yahoo last night said its profits dipped to $206m in the final three months of 2007 but still topped expectations by Wall Street analysts.
Yahoo said it earned 15 cents per share in its final fiscal quarter of 2007 compared with 19 cents per share, or $269m, the same time a year earlier. Financial analysts had predicted Yahoo would earn approximately 11 cents per share in the final quarter of 2007.
The report was released amid marketplace buzz that the US Internet giant will lay off employees as part of a programme to focus on core strengths and improve profits. Yahoo employs about 600 people at its Irish operations in Dublin's East Point Business Park.
'We are executing aggressively against Yahoo's three big strategic priorities and that hard work is starting to bear fruit,' said the firm's co-founder and chief executive Jerry Yang.
'This is a pivotal time for Yahoo's business and we have a unique window of opportunity right now to make the necessary, game-changing investments that will help us capture a significant piece of the growing ad market and create substantial long-term value for our shareholders,' he added.
Yahoo said its revenues for 2007 climbed 8% to $1.8 billion compared to revenues in the prior year. Its net income for 2007 was $660m, or 47 cents per share, compared to $751m, or 52 cents per share, in 2006.
