Dive summary:
- Yahoo's revenue declined 1% from last year despite the rejuvenation tactics employed by new CEO Marissa Mayer; the $1.07 billion on the second quarter of 2013 falls short of analyst predictions.
- The problem lies with the ineffectiveness of display ads; increasingly, ad buyers are going through automated exchanges with sales going to the highest bidder, which reduces the revenue coming in per ad.
- The user shift to mobile is causing a drop in revenue, as well; according to Mayer, Yahoo reaches 340 million unique visitors through mobile—compared to 188.7 million on desktop—but fewer ads can be displayed on mobile and the cost per ad is lower.
From the article:
"Over the last year, Ms. Mayer has repeatedly cautioned observers that the portal's turnaround is a multi-year undertaking. To that end she has the company on an acquisitions tear, buying nine companies in the second quarter alone. Ms. Mayer's flagship deal has been the $1.1 billion purchase of blogging service Tumblr."
