SUNNYVALE (dpa-AFX) - Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) on Tuesday reported a loss for the fourth quarter, hurt largely by a hefty goodwill impairment charge. Nevertheless, stripping out one-time items, Yahoo's earnings came in line with analysts' estimates.
The struggling internet behemoth also announced that it is exploring strategic alternatives for some of its non-core web businesses. The company will also lay off 15 percent of employees.
Yahoo revealed that by the end of the year it will reduce its workforce by 15 percent and exit five offices in Dubai, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madrid and Milan.
By 2016-end, Yahoo anticipates having about 9,000 employees and fewer than 1,000 contractors, which represents a workforce that is roughly 42 percent smaller than it was in 2012. The company expects the cuts to save $400 million a year.
Yahoo also said it has begun to explore divesting non-strategic assets, including patents, real estate, and other non-core assets. The company estimates the sale could generate between $1 and $3 billion in cash.
'The Board also believes that exploring additional strategic alternatives, in parallel to the execution of the management plan, is in the best interest of our shareholders,' Board Chairman Maynard Webb said.
Yahoo also said it is continuing the work on the reverse spin of Alibaba stake.
Last year, the company ditched its plans to spin off its lucrative stake in Chinese e-commerce titan Alibaba in order to make tax savings. Instead, the company announced the so-called 'reverse spin-off'-- an alternative way of separating the Alibaba stake to save million of dollars in taxes. This reverse spin-off could take more than a year to complete.
Sunnyvale, California-based Yahoo reported fourth-quarter loss of $4.43 billion or $4.70 per share compared with $166.3 million or $0.17 per share last year. Bottom line for the quarter reflected a hefty goodwill impairment charge of $4.46 billion.
On an adjusted basis, earnings dropped to $0.13 per share from $0.30 per share last year. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters estimated earnings of $0.13 per share. Analysts' estimates typically exclude one-time items.
Yahoo's revenue's for the quarter dropped to $1.25 billion from $1.27 billion last year. Analysts had a consensus revenue estimate of $1.19 billion for the quarter.
Traffic-acquisition costs rose to $271 million from $74 million last year as Yahoo has begun paying its partners Mozilla and Oracle more money for users.
YHOO closed Tuesday's trading at $29.06, down $0.51 or 1.72%, on the Nasdaq. The stock further dropped $0.46 or 1.58% in the after-hours trading.
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