Yahoo shares jump 9% despite falling profits

Yahoo shares jumped 9% despite a 20% fall in first-quarter earnings.

Yahoo’s profits of $312 million still beat expectations.

Yahoo also said revenue from display advertising increased by 2% to $409 million, the first rise in some time. Overall, first quarter revenue was $1.1 billion, the best since 2010.

“I am really pleased by our first-quarter performance,” said Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer in a statement.

Yahoo also reported that it had 430 million monthly mobile users who accessed Yahoo products, a crucial measure as the firm seeks to catch up with Facebook and Google to attract mobile advertising.

It also increased its total workforce by 8% to 12,400 global employees.

In contrast to Yahoo’s earnings fall, Chinese internet giant Alibaba, of which Yahoo owns a 24% share, reported surging revenues.

These increased by 66% in 2013 Q4 to $3.06 billion, compared with $1.84 billion during the same period a year earlier.

Profits increased 110% to $1.4 billion, compared with $642 million a year earlier.

Alibaba’s fourth quarter earnings were released as part of Yahoo’s report.

Alibaba, China’s largest internet company, is expected to complete a public share sale sometime this summer on a US exchange.

The share float could raise as much as $15 billion, making it the biggest technology company debut since Facebook’s stock sale in 2012.