Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer delivers surprising Q3 earnings

Yahoo chief executive Marissa Mayer is off to a good start at the Internet giant.

Three months after she was poached from rival Google, Mayer on Monday delivered a better-than-expected result for the third quarter, the New York Times reported.

Net profit rose to $3.2 billion, or $2.64 per share, during the three months through September, up from $293 million, or 23 cents per share, for the same period last year, according to the Associated Press.

Yahoo’s result included a one-off gain of $2.8 billion from the sale of half its stake in Chinese Internet giant Alibaba Group.

Stripping that out of the numbers, the company earned 35 cents per share, which was still better than the 26 cents per share many analysts were expecting.

Net revenue rose only slightly to $1.09 billion, compared with $1.07 billion a year ago.

Investors were pleased with the result. Shares in Yahoo surged more than four percent in pre-market trading this morning, the AP said.

In a conference call with analysts on Monday night, Mayer said Yahoo was “committed to going back to our roots as a consumer Internet company focused on user experience,” Reuters reported.

Yahoo would modernize its websites and make them more smartphone friendly as the company focused on making “world’s daily habits inspiring and entertaining.”

“We’ll become a growth company by inspiring and delighting our users," Mayer was quoted by Bloomberg as saying.

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