Yahoo 1Q profit rises, but that might not thwart Microsoft

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The Sunnyvale-based company said Tuesday that it earned $542.2 million, or 37 cents per share, more than triple its profit of $142.4 million, or 10 cents per share, at the same time last year.

Most of the first-quarter improvement stemmed from a non-cash gain of $401 million recorded to recognize Yahoo's stake in the parent company of Alibaba.com, a leading e-commerce site in China that went public last year.

If not for the Alibaba windfall, Yahoo would have earned 11 cents per share comparable to its profit at the same time last year, on an apples-to-apples basis.

The results were 2 cents above the average earnings estimate on the same basis among analysts surveyed by Thomson Financial.

Revenue climbed 9 percent to $1.82 billion.

After subtracting commissions Yahoo paid its advertising partners, its revenue totaled $1.35 billion just $30 million ahead of analysts' average projection.

The performance provided another reminder of the ever-widening gap separating Yahoo from Internet search and advertising leader Google Inc., whose first-quarter profit climbed 30 percent to $1.3 billion on revenue that rose 42 percent to $5.2 billion.

Perhaps even more importantly, Yahoo didn't raise its revenue outlook for the remainder of year.

That could be good news for Microsoft, which has been betting that its takeover bid will become more difficult to resist if Yahoo can't substantially accelerate its growth amid the decaying U.S. economy.

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