New Yahoo CEO Focuses on Display After Q4 Sales Dip

Yahoo’s 2011 Q4 display revenue was down 4 percent year-over-year, totaling $612 million. During a call with investors, new CEO Scott Thompson said juicing that all-important business is his top priority.

“A lot of my time and attention has gone into understanding exactly what that business is, exactly what’s been affecting that business, and meeting with customers to understand why they don’t give us more of their spend,” he said. It’s been less than three weeks since Thompson took the helm at the Sunnyvale, CA-based firm.

Thompson continued, “We are after that with a real sense of urgency. That is the very highest priority I have on the business today – to get [display] going in the right direction. Again, too early to say what steps and actions we might take… But it’s our intention to get that business back and growing at a very healthy rate.”

After pointing to Yahoo’s ad targeting enhancements during 2011, CFO Tim Morse said, “In the larger context, despite those foundational improvements, revenue isn’t growing. In fact, we’ve lost share in display advertising. Given the investments we’ve made over the last couple of years, we expected better.”

Yahoo’s 2011 Q4 search revenue was $465 million, down 27 percent compared to the same quarter for the previous year. The company attributed the decline to the search agreement it signed with Microsoft during 2011. It says the search revenue total reflects $48 million in search operating cost reimbursements from Microsoft.

Overall fourth quarter revenue was $1.3 billion, a 13 percent decrease from 2010 Q4. To improve Yahoo’s general performance, it plans to increase focus on the U.K. and France, Morse said.