Yahoo reports revenue and profit hike

The world's most popular internet site Yahoo! has reported a 62% increase in profits.

Ongoing recovery in online advertising revenues was one of the main reasons for the sharp increase.

It reported fourth quarter profits of $75m (€59.50m) compared with $46.2m (€36.65m) the year before.

Last October, Yahoo! Paid £1bn (€1.44bn) for search-engine giant Overture. This saw revenue at Yahoo! Rocket to $511.3m (€405m) from $285.8m (€226m).

Yahoo! Chairman and chief executive, Terry Semel, said the results were encouraging but promised there was much more to come as the company goes into battle with rival Google for the increasingly lucrative paid-for search listings.

He added that growth in online advertising of 25% to 30% could be expected in 2004.

In Europe, Yahoo! is also expected to continue to expand the number of paid-for services, including online dating and online job search.

Yahoo!'s share price has risen by 146% in the last 12 months.