Yahoo growth slows, but profits double due to HotJobs sale

Search provider Yahoo generated twice as much profit in its third quarter this year than last year after selling its job-seeking site HotJobs, bringing in nearly $400 million despite slowing revenue growth, according to its financial results for the third quarter released today.

Yahoo’s revenue was up 2 percent in the third quarter compared to the same quarter last year. The second largest search provider of the Internet brought in $1.6 billion last quarter, compared to $1.58 billion in the same quarter last year.

The web portal sold its job-hunting site, HotJobs, to competing job seeking site Monster.com for $225 million in February this year. Without that sale, Yahoo would have made less this quarter than it did last year — down 8.1 percent to about $172 million compared to last year’s third-quarter profits of $188 million. About a quarter of that — $42 million — came from reduced operating expenses and cutting product development funding.

Yahoo’s latest ho-hum performance again raises questions about whether Yahoo’s new CEO Carol Bartz (pictured left) can make good on her promise to turn the company around since coming on board in 2009. Bartz has come under criticism for mishandling relationships with important partners in Asia and allowing high turnover in Yahoo’s executive ranks. Then there are the rumors that AOL and a number of private firms are planning to pick up the search provider and take it private.

It isn’t immediately clear where Yahoo goes from here, but one thing is obvious: investors didn’t appreciate Yahoo’s performance. The results ignited a minor sell-off and brought Yahoo’s shares down about 2.9 percent to $15.47 in extended trading today.