Marissa Mayer puts Yahoo back on track as earnings soar by 46%

President and CEO of Yahoo!, Marissa Mayer (Getty Images)

Yahoo’s earnings rose by 46 per cent in the second quarter, the company said last night as its chief executive, Marissa Mayer, marked one year at the helm of the internet business that is trying to win back the attention of web users.

The firm booked $1.07bn in net revenues in the three months to the end of June, slightly lower than last year, while net earnings climbed by 46 per cent to $331.2m.

The results come as Ms Mayer, 38, who in July 2012 was named Yahoo’s sixth chief executive in a span of just five years, continues to rejuvenate a business that in recent years had struggled to keep up with rivals such as Google, where she used to work.

From the outset, her pitch was about refocusing Yahoo on certain core areas such as mobile data and video.

The former, in particular, has emerged a key preoccupation at the new Yahoo, and among the highlights of Ms Mayer’s first year in charge was the company’s acquisition of Summly, the mobile application created by a London teenager, Nick D’Aloisio, to help users easily summarise information for online articles.

Yahoo reportedly paid $30m for the app as it repositions itself to compete in the fast-growing market for online services accessed via smartphones and electronic tablets.

In all, Ms Mayer, who was among Google’s earliest employees, has completed 17 deals, including the acquisition of the blogging site Tumblr for more than $1bn.

Much, however, remains to be done. Although Yahoo’s share price has booked strong gains since she took over, it will take some time before the full impact of the acquisitions is apparent.

Last night’s results showed that net revenues from Yahoo’s display advertising business declined by 11 per cent over the quarter, while the price-per-ad, excluding Korea, decreased by about 12 per cent.