Yahoo! issued its Q3 06 earnings today and the numbers weren’t pretty, but the Internet giant had already warned everybody this might be the case.
| Yahoo Selected Financial Data (000s) | |||||
| Q305 | Q405 | Q106 | Q206 | Q306 | |
| Revenues | $ 1,329,929 | $ 1,501,000 | $ 1,567,000 | $ 1,575,854 | $ 1,580,322 |
| Total operating expenses | $ 539,634 | $ 599,166 | $ 707,900 | $ 700,500 | $ 696,862 |
| Income from operations | $ 270,057 | $ 328,948 | $ 201,212 | $ 229,587 | $ 202,340 |
| Net income | $ 253,773 | $ 683,208 | $ 159,859 | $ 164,300 | $ 158,529 |
While revenues rose 19% year-over-year to $1.58 billion, they barely rose (up only .3%) sequentially. Net income dropped 38% year-over-year, and 3.9% sequentially, to $158.5 million.
“While we are tremendously excited about many things happening at Yahoo!, we are not satisfied with our third quarter financial performance,” CEO Terry Semel said during the company’s earnings call. The good news is that Yahoo!’s long-delayed search advertising platform, Project Panama, or at least its front-end, is live as of today, with advertisers already using it.
Yahoo!’s difficulties in embracing graphical advertising will be aided by two deals announced today, Semel said. First, Yahoo has a deal to purchase rich media advertising company AdInterax. Secondly, Yahoo! is a strategic investor in online advertising exchange start-up Right Media.
No word on the talks between Yahoo! and Facebook, but Semel did emphasize that Yahoo! already has tested the social media waters with Flickr, Yahoo! Answers, del.icio.us and Yahoo Video. “We’re a far bigger player in this space than many people realize,” Semel said, noting that the four social-ish media properties combined currently lay claim to 100 million users per month.
Regarding another growth category, video, Semel said that “our goal is to make video as ubiquitous as text throughout Yahoo” through partnerships, such as the local news distribution deal with CBS announced yesterday, as well as original content creation.
Finally, Yahoo plans to ramp up its mobile efforts to the point where “Yahoo! Go and other services will be available to the majority of phones in the world in the next 18 months,” Semel predicted.
Despite these hopes, Yahoo! dampened expectations for Q4 06, saying that revenue will range from $1.15 billion to $1.27 billion, down slightly from analysts’ expecations and off from the $1.58 billion posted for Q3 06.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 5:25 PM | Print | Comments (0)
I published a little analysis yesterday in IP Media Monitor that uses Alexa data to rank thirty-six video sharing/user-generated video sites. The question in my mind following the Google-YouTube deal is whether there are any other video sharing sites out there worthy scooping up.
The ranking (see table below) doesn’t really answer that question given the early-days of video sharing and the prospects for further — and differentiated — growth. But it is interesting to see who the top contenders are beyond YouTube, even if the Alexa data are flawed (I’ve ruled out the giants such as MySpace, AOL, Google Video and so forth because they dwarf any stand-alone web site or service).
YouTube obviously comes in first, with a ranking of 10. The second-ranked site is MetaCafe, which came in at 146. The third highest-ranked site was DailyMotion at 146, while the fourth was ebaumsworld at 598. Rounding out the top five was iFilm, now owned by Viacom, at 1,104.
| Video Sharing Sites, Sorted by Alexa Rank | |
| Site | Alexa 3 Month Average Site Ranking as of 10/16/06 |
| YouTube | 10 |
| MetaCafe | 146 |
| Daily Motion | 598 |
| ebaumsworld | 749 |
| iFilm | 1,104 |
| PutFile | 1,289 |
| Bolt | 1,326 |
| VidiLife | 1,928 |
| ZippyVideos | 2,027 |
| Revver | 2,782 |
| Grouper | 2,824 |
| vSocial | 3,381 |
| Veoh | 3,667 |
| Guba | 4,145 |
| Yikers | 6,259 |
| ManiaTV | 8,410 |
| Vimeo | 9,048 |
| AddictingClips.com | 9,093 |
| GoFish | 10,130 |
| Phanfare | 10,633 |
| Blip.tv | 10,703 |
| MediaMax | 13,248 |
| vMix | 14,615 |
| CastPost | 15,815 |
| ClipShack | 20,423 |
| VideoEgg | 24,291 |
| Sharkle | 26,966 |
| OurMedia | 31,816 |
| Eyespot | 40,116 |
| HomeMovie.com | 50,132 |
| Fliqz | 58,488 |
| MotionBox | 62,721 |
| Lulu TV | 95,256 |
| Filecow | 208,928 |
| Video Webtown | 413,226 |
| Openvlog | 456,413 |
| AOL | na |
| Google Video | na |
| Yahoo Video | na |
| MySpace | na |
| Source: Emerging Media Dynamics, Inc. analysis of Alexa rankings. | |
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 8:34 AM | Print | Comments (0)
I should have mentioned this yesterday, but AT&T submitted revised merger conditions to the Commission, an outline of obligations that previously mentioned net neutrality in passing but now spells out the issue separately.
Effective on the Merger Closing Date, and continuing for thirty months thereafter, AT&T/BellSouth will conduct business in a manner that comports with the principles set forth in the FCC’s Policy Statement, issued September 23, 2005 (FCC 05-151).
Kevin Martin hopes to get this merger approved at a special FCC meeting on November 3, but Kevin Martin’s hopes may be dashed. The word on the street is that the Democratic commissioners, Michael Copps and Jonathan Adelstein, won’t be ready by then to vote on the deal.
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 7:52 AM | Print | Comments (0)
I just got back from one of DC’s swankiest affairs, The Media Institute’s annual Friends & Benefactors Awards Banquet, held at the Four Seasons in Georgetown. The three guests of honor were new FCC Commissioner Robert M. McDowell, marking his first (well, almost first) public speaking engagement since assuming his position, Time Warner Cable CEO Glenn Britt, who won the Institute’s American Horizon Award and Viacom Chairman Sumner Redstone, who won the Freedom of Speech Award.
Redstone’s speech was the highlight of the evening. He railed at the “censorship” imposed on broadcasters when TV stations are fined for violating the Commission’s indecency regulations. In the wake of Janet Jackson’s Super Bowl half-time incident, the FCC has stepped up its enforcement of indency violations and ramped up the fines owed.
Redstone said
Unfortunately, we find ourselves in a world where, increasingly and alarmingly, a couple thousand form complaints from people condemning shows that they have never watched can result in an indecency fine ten times higher than it was a year ago.
Redstone ticked off what he considered both Viacom’s and CBS’ high quality programs and movies (via Paramount), but said he would defend the right of others to produce less lofty content.
Another Supreme Court Justice Robert H. Jackson, who incidentally was chief prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials, once said, “The price of freedom of religion, or of speech, or of the press, is that we must put up with a good deal of rubbish.” As a responsible media executive — and more importantly, a parent and grandparent - I have no intention of pushing rubbish, but I defend others’ freedom to create what some, including me, might not like.
In his keynote speech, FCC Commissioner McDowell made very clear that he is a staunch free-market Republican. “The private sector at least deserves a foster parent” at the FCC, he said. His first act at the Commission was to enable anti-communist Radio Marti to better reach Cuban shores. (Shortly thereafter, Fidel Castro fell ill, McDowell joked.)
He doesn’t seem to be as much a free-marketeer when it comes to cracking down on TV obscenity and indecency. “In the absence of self-regulation, government regulation will fill the vacuum,” McDowell said.
Time Warner Cable’s Britt said little on policy matters but much about the business of cable. “This is the most exciting time to be in the cable business since I joined it,” Britt said. The Internet is clearly creating a lot of new opportunities and the possibilities are vast and unpredictable. “I don’t think anybody knows where the Internet is really headed.”
Posted by Cynthia Brumfield at 12:03 AM | Print | Comments (0)
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