Yahoo's Q1 Earnings: The Revenue Growth Drought Continues Due to MicroHoo Search Fall-Off

I think it means we kinda made it

“Thus, it seems the turnaround efforts at Yahoo, much touted by CEO Carol Bartz, are still turning.”

A great “turn of the phrase”, Kara. Congrats.

Made what? Every data point is by definition higher than some other data point. A desperate spinmeister will always find a lower point to compare results against. Midpoint of revenue guidance? That is utter, ridiculous rubbish.

First, companies are the ones that give guidance, which means they set their own benchmark. Second, this means they did not meet the top end of their own guidance. Third, this is just to try and deflect attention from the fact that both revenues and profits are falling because outsourcing search to Microsoft was a terrible strategic move.

With Bartz, the best is always yet to come. This woman should be fired, fast. A drunk monkey could not deliver worse results running Yahoo.

Funny how you indicate that talking about guidance is rubbish – but in your second point indicate that they missed the top end of that guidance. So – is it rubbish – or something they should be measured against? for some reason people love to hate them – last year when they had earnings that were high because of divestitures people said those shouldn’t count. Now this year when they compare against those same earnings people say “profits falling”.
And – as the market this morning proves – meeting guidance (and expecations) means something…

So – is it rubbish – or something they should be measured against?

Does it occur to you that it can be both? Can your brain wrap around that?
Guidance is the company’s own projection, meaning they set the benchmark.
This makes it rubbish for assessing performance- the proper comparator is
other companies in the peer group, and the company’s own past performance.
Focusing on guidance is deliberately trying to draw attention away from the
bad fundamental results.

Then again, guidance is given to communicate the company’s projections to
the market. It is a loose promise. So when the company misses its own
guidance and has to resorty to silly fudges like ‘above the midpoint’ it is
again trying to spin a bad story into good.

I’ll admit I do have a little struggle understanding how something should be the bar to measure something with – and at the same time be rubbish. Guidance certainly isn’t the only measure – but it should be one. Any year over year comparison is going to be clouded with unusual items – a growth rate on anything means nothing unless you understand the underlying dynamics. This is why you need to look at guidance (did they do what they said), look at vs last year comparisons (are they getting better) and look at peer group (are they doing as well as they should). Grasping to one is a poor strategy – and claiming that a company talking about any one of the 3 is an attempt to “deflect” is short sighted. Though – it is likely investors like you that help make money for people who spend time and truly analyze results.