Search giant Yahoo! has recorded a massive rise in profits over the past year. The company has announced a total profit of £1.2bn, a rise of 80% on the previous 12 months. Revenues also rose by 120%, from £864m to £1.9bn.
The company put the increase down to a boom in the online advertising market - companies spent as much advertising with the search firm for the three months up to Christmas 2004 as in the whole of 2002. The company's chief executive, Terry Semel, said: "This was also the year in which we witnessed the beginning of a tipping point in advertising in which marketers address the continued shift in consumers' changing media habits by investing more of their marketing dollars online."
Subscription income for the company also rose. It spent £401m on acqusitions last year - among them Overture, the advertising firm, and online music service MusicMatch. It's expected to continue looking for further acquisitions over the next 12 months.
View: Yahoo! | Full figures (PDF)
