A Profit, Yahoo! But Wall Street Yawns

Carol Bartz sees her company to $119 million profit

Wall Street's a tough crowd.

After Yahoo reported a $119 million profit for its fourth quarter, CNBC Silicon Valley bureau chief Jim Goldman yawned on air.

Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz didn't help matters with a stiff delivery of a prepared statement in the earnings call. But however the message came across, it was good news: At least Yahoo wasn't bleeding money like last year.

Since Bartz took over last spring, the company has effectively exited the search business, leaning on Microsoft to run its search engine rather than try to compete with Google.

That means that Yahoo's future increasingly lies with display ads -- those familiar if tired banners that adorn most Web pages. And sales of display ads were up 26 percent.

"Way to friggin' go, Carol!" wrote VentureBeat's Paul Boutin -- a nod to the CEO's famously salty language.

Actually, Bartz managed not to swear during this quarter's conference call. And why should she? At last, some good news for a company that needs it.

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