(Kyodo News International via NewsEdge) Internet portal Yahoo Japan set new highs in both group net profit and revenues in the first half of fiscal 2006, reflecting the continuously increasing use of the Internet, especially broadband services.
In its consolidated earnings report for the April-September period, Yahoo Japan posted a net profit of 26.81 billion yen ($224.65 million), up 25% over a year earlier and surpassing the previous first-half record high of 21.45 billion yen ($179.71 million) marked a year before, on a 25.6% increase in revenues to 100.47 billion yen ($842.26 million).
Yahoo Japan, which is 41.3% owned by Softbank in terms of voting rights and 33.5% by Yahoo of the US, also reported a pretax profit of 47.71 billion yen ($399.96 million), up 31.2%.
The company declined to release earnings projections for the entire fiscal year to next March 31, citing a rapidly changing business environment surrounding the Internet.
But it forecasts a net profit of 13.65 billion to 15.20 billion yen ($114.39 million to $127.38 million) for the October-December period and a pretax profit of 24 billion yen to 26.50 billion yen ($201.10 million to $222.04 million) on revenues of 51.70 billion to 55.20 billion yen ($433.27 million to $462.60 million).
In fiscal 2005, Yahoo Japan booked a net profit of 47.09 billion yen ($394.60 million), an all-time high, and a pretax profit of 79.87 billion yen ($669.28 million) on revenues of 173.70 billion yen ($1.46 billion), also a record high.
It also said it is considering going public on the Jasdaq Securities Exchange within fiscal 2006 ending March 2007.
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