Yahoo today reported its quarterly profit nearly quintupled as online advertising took business from television, search services grew and Yahoo sold a stake in rival Google.
Yahoo shares rose almost 2 per cent in after-hours trading, as it forecast first-quarter and 2005 revenues at the high end of Wall Street estimates.
Shares of Internet companies including Google, Ask Jeeves , eBay, Amazon.com and CNET Networks also moved higher after the Yahoo results.
Net income rose to $373 million boosted by the sale of some shares in Google. Excluding that gain, fourth-quarter net profit rose to $187 million from $75 million last year.
Revenue, excluding fees Yahoo pays to its advertising partners, rose to $785 million from $511 million a year earlier.
Yahoo's marketing services revenue, which includes branded and Web search advertising, jumped by 67 percent to $911 million. A portion of those revenues are paid out to Yahoo's Web search advertisers in the form of traffic acquisition fees.
Fees revenue, which covers everything from Yahoo's high-speed Internet services with companies like SBC Communications to recently acquired Musicmatch and Fantasy Football, rose 52 per cent to $129 million. Listings revenue from such businesses as HotJobs increased 15 percent to $38 million.