After last quarter, Yahoo!
Yahoo! said some weak growth in advertising sales to automotive and financial-services companies will put a drag on its third quarter. Sales for Q3 are now expected to come in at the lower end of its guidance.
Unveiling this news at a Goldman Sachs media conference, Yahoo! officials said the sluggishness in these areas is a new trend, so the company doesn't yet know whether this is part of a broader slowdown. By admitting uncertainty as to whether things are going to get worse, Yahoo! is not exactly dishing out any consoling sentiments.
Given the problems that Ford
No wonder so many investors are wondering how widespread this trend is and how much it will affect other Internet companies, most notably Google
It is arguable that many of the issues surrounding Yahoo! have a lot to do with the overall economic picture. Yahoo! is still a marquee name on the Internet, despite all of the attention that Google, News Corp.'s
Investors are admittedly having a hard time getting excited about Yahoo! lately, and today's news and subsequent stock plunge don't make things any easier. (Last quarter, longtime Fool Rick Munarriz seemed more bored than horrified about the company.) However, some of us believe that Yahoo! retains plenty of long-term strengths, regardless of some of the short-term concerns that are making investors nervous.
For more recent word on Yahoo!, see the following Foolish articles:
- Is Yahoo! caught up in the past?
- Google flashed its cash -- and pushed out Yahoo! -- when courting MySpace.
- Yahoo! bored Rick Munarriz to tears last quarter.
If you're interested in reading the full write-up on Yahoo!, along with gaining access to all of the picks in the Stock Advisor newsletter, we've got afree, 30-day trialwaiting for you. Amazon is also a Stock Advisor recommendation.
Microsoft is a Motley Fool Inside Value selection.
Alyce Lomax does not own shares of any of the companies mentioned.