Yahoo profit falls, CFO says 2008 outlook intact

Yahoo Inc on Wednesday posted a nearly 19% fall in net profit, and net revenue short of lowered Wall Street expectations, as it faced a weakening economy and the distraction of Microsoft Corp's pursuit.

Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen told Reuters in an interview the company was not changing its financial view for 2008, despite an admittedly difficult economic environment that is weighing on online advertising.

Yahoo shares rose close to 1% in extended trading.

The Internet pioneer, which just settled a proxy battle with activist investor Carl Icahn, said second-quarter net income fell to $131 mln, or 9 cents per diluted share, from $161 mln, or 11 cents per share, a year earlier.

Excluding one-time items, profit was $139 mln, or 10 cents per share, down from $163 mln, or 12 cents per share, a year ago.

Gross revenue rose 6% to $1.798 bln. Net revenue excluding payments to affiliated Web sites that carry Yahoo advertising services rose 8% to $1.35 bln.

Wall Street analysts, on average, were looking for net revenue of $1.37 bln, according to Reuters Estimates.

Yahoo forecast third-quarter revenue of $1.78 bln to $1.98 bln and full-year revenue of $7.35 bln to $7.85 bln. It projected operating income before depreciation, amortization and other items of $405 mln to $465 mln for the third quarter and $1.83 bln to $1.98 bln for the year.

Yahoo's earnings come a day after it agreed to appoint Icahn and two of his nominees to its board, ending a proxy battle that would have otherwise been decided at its August 1 annual meeting, and reducing the chances of immediately revisiting a Microsoft deal.