Yahoo CEO admits firm must do better as profits fall

FADING INTERNET PORTAL Yahoo has posted another round of disappointing financial results as its CEO admitted the firm should do better.

Yahoo's fall from grace might not be complete but its fourth quarter 2011 financials showed its slide continuing with a 13 per cent decrease in revenue to $1.32bn. Profits fell five per cent to $296m.

As part of Yahoo's deal with Microsoft to operate its search engines, Yahoo paid out $48m to Microsoft in the last three months of 2011. According to the company it expects these payments to decrease in the future.

While Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson initially said, "Yahoo continued to make progress in the quarter with operating income increasing ten percent year over year," on the conference call he admitted the firm needed to do better.

At present Yahoo is in the process of trying to find a buyer for a business that still has some impressive assets, something the firm tried to highlight in its financials release. Thompson knows Yahoo has to do better to attract a high price from potential buyers.

Recently Microsoft overtook Yahoo in US search engine requests, signalling how far Yahoo has fallen. Although Microsoft is now in second place, both firms are light years behind internet search leader Google. µ