According to Yahoo’s 2014 earnings report released today, the company’s investment businesses, which included mobile, video, native, and social, delivered $1.1 billion in revenue, representing a 95 percent year-over-year increase. Yahoo’s total revenue last year dropped to $4.618 billion, a slight decline from the $4.680 billion it generated in 2013.
Yahoo also reported mobile gains, generating $254 million in mobile revenue during Q4, and $768 million for all of 2014. (Gross mobile revenue came to $1.26 billion for the year.)
Our mobile strategy and focus has transformed Yahoo and yielded significant results.
Yahoo listed a number of business highlights for the year, including the acquisition of the programmatic video ad platform BrightRoll, and its partnership with Mozilla to make Yahoo the default search engine in Mozilla’s Firefox mobile and desktop browser.
“This is the most significant partnership for Yahoo in five years,” said the company about its deal with Mozilla.
Yahoo also noted a number of new hires that happened during Q4 2014 and this year, including Senior Vice President, Sales, Americas Lisa Utzschneider and Vice President, Sales Strategy and Solutions Kathy Kayse.
Yahoo reports it generated $467 million during Q4 2014 in search revenue, up one percent compared to Q4 2013. For the year, Yahoo search revenue reached $1,793 million, up three percent from 2013. (Gross search revenue totaled $3,382 million for all of 2014, an increase of 14 percent over 2013.)
Paid search clicks during Q4 were up 10 percent over Q4 2013, with the price-per-click up seven percent. Search revenue ticked up 1 percent from Q3 and rose 3 percent for the year to $1,793, up from $1,742 for the previous year.
Yahoo saw a four-percent decrease in display revenue both quarter-over-quarter and year-over-year. Display ad revenue totaled $1,868 million for 2014, down from $1,950 million for 2013. The company said the number of display ads it sold was up 17 percent during Q4 2104 compared to the same time period in 2013. However, the price price-per-ad decreased approximately 20 percent year-over-year.
Yahoo’s Key 2014 Financial Highlights
In addition to posting its earnings report, Yahoo also released a statement on its plans for a tax-free spin-off of its remaining stake in Alibaba Group.
According to Yahoo, it will transfer its remaining 15 percent stake in Alibaba into a “legacy, ancillary business” and distribute shares of the new unit to current Yahoo shareholders. The transaction is expected to be completed by Q4 2015.
Postscript: This article was updated after publishing to clarify Yahoo’s total revenues for 2014 versus revenue gains from its mobile, video, native, and social business investments.
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