Yahoo! Beats Lowered Expectations

Yahoo! (YHOO Quote - Cramer on YHOO - Stock Picks) edged analysts' diminished expectations for the second quarter.

The Internet media bellwether also reiterated its three-month-old targets for the full year, getting a little bit of a lift from Launch Media (LAUN Quote - Cramer on LAUN - Stock Picks), which Yahoo! agreed to acquire last month.

For the quarter, Yahoo! reported revenue of $182.2 million, ahead of the $175.1 million consensus of analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial/First Call, but well below the year-ago $273 million.

Excluding certain items, Yahoo! reported earnings of a penny a share, better than the break-even consensus but far short of the year-ago 11 cents.

Including $45.5 million in restructuring- and acquisition-related charges, Yahoo!'s second-quarter loss was $48.5 million, or 9 cents per share. A year ago, the company earned $53.3 million, or 9 cents a share.

Yahoo! repeated that it expects 2001 revenue of $700 million to $775 million. The company pointed out that its full-year projection assumes it will close the Launch deal in the third quarter. Judging from Launch's forecasts for the year, Launch could add $12 million to $18 million to Yahoo!'s revenue by Dec. 31.

Yahoo!, which fell 80 cents to $17.03 in regular trading ahead of the announcement, surged to $18.66 in after-hours trading on Island.