Yahoo! posts! profit!

Yahoo! Inc's decision to cut costs and introduce new ways to generate money, such as charging for email, appears to be paying off.

Revenue at the world's most visited portal network jumped 51 per cent to $285.8m in Q4 2002, up from $188.9 million in the same period in 2001.

This increase helped deliver positive numbers for Yahoo! posting a net income for the three months to the end of December of $46.2m, compared with a net loss of $8.7 in Q4 2001.

Net revenues for the year landed at $953.1m, up 33 per cent compared to the $717.4 m reported in 2001.

There was also an improvement in the outfit's EBITDA with earnings before interest etc for the year at $206m compared with an EBITDA loss of $18.6 million in 2001.

Terry Semel, chairman and chief exec of Yahoo!, said that major changes at the company had taken Yahoo! "from a company with tremendous potential to one with multiple strong businesses" which can build a "sustainable long-term future".

Looking ahead, Yahoo! anticipates revenues for Q1 2003 to be between $255m and $275m, with EBITDA coming in somewhere between $60 and $70 million for the quarter.

For the full year, Yahoo! expects to generate revenues of between $1.145bn $1.215bn, with EBITDA between $295m and $330 million. ®