Yahoo Earnings Down

admin 04.21.2009

What’s interesting about this to me, is that the coverage itself is very “the-sky-is-falling.”  Of course Yahoo has been mis-managed, and of course they’re playing catch-up.  Despite that, though, their earnings trend looks better than most DOW stocks.  And they still have, what – the 2nd most popular name in the dominant media of our time?

Here’s a line from the NY Times piece that leads me think their own earning problems are affecting their coverage and tilting it towards the sensational.

“But Yahoo’s display advertising business is expected to decline, as marketers cut their spending on high-priced banners and other branding ads.”

Um, no.  All of these prices are set at auction.  Every single client wants more volume (sales/orders/leads/etc…) at a lower cost.  

So one segment of the market – Proctor and Gamble? – may cut their budgets, but two things could happen.  1, Other people  - people that’ve never been sold to by Yahoo’s team – will step in and buy the inventory.  2, Yahoo could Put more text links up online, and fewer banner ads.  Et Voilà.

There are enough people out there still making money to buy this inventory – if Yahoo can pitch them correctly.  And if Yahoo can keep reaching out to agencies – which they’e always done better than Google – we’d be happy to help them.  All of our 50K to 500K clients would looooove to buy this inventory if Yahoo made it easy enough.