Yahoo Q4 Profit Tops Street, But Verizon Deal Closure To Delay

(RTTNews) - Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) Monday reported a profit for the fourth quarter that trumped Wall Street estimates, and said it expects a delay in completion of the deal with Verizon Communications Inc.

Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo reported fourth-quarter profit of $162.0 million or $0.17 per share, compared to last year's loss of $4.43 billion or $4.70 per share. Last year, Yahoo recorded a hefty goodwill impairment charge of $4.46 billion.

On an adjusted basis, earnings rose to $0.25 per share from $0.13 per share last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $0.21 per share.

Yahoo's revenue's for the quarter rose to $1.47 billion from $1.27 billion last year, reflecting a change in revenue presentation. Without that change, revenue would have declined 8 percent to $1.17 billion. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $1.38 billion.

Traffic-acquisition costs rose to $509 million from $271 million last year.

Yahoo now expects to close the sale of its core internet business to Verizon in the second quarter instead of the first quarter as earlier expected. The company cited "given work required to meet closing conditions" as the reason for the delay.

"Yahoo has continued to work with Verizon on integration planning for the sale of its core business. In terms of timing, Yahoo had previously stated that it expected to close the transaction in Q1," the company said in a statement.

In July last year, Verizon agreed to acquire Yahoo's core internet business for $4.83 billion. However, the deal seems to have reached a hurdle because of the data breach at the internet company that affected more than 500 million accounts.

YHOO closed Monday's trading at $42.40, up $0.35 or 0.83%, on the Nasdaq. The stock further gained $0.15 or 0.35% in the after-hours trade.