Yahoo has reported profits of $38m (£22m) for Q2 2014, down 72 per cent year-on-year. Its worth noting that this figure includes restructuring charges of $4m, but that only accounts for a fraction of the $99m deficit.

Revenues, meanwhile, were down four per cent from the same quarter last year, to $1.1bn.

This drop was driven by Yahoos display advertising business, which accounts for nearly half of the companys revenue. In Q2, display revenues decreased eight per cent to $436m, despite the number of ads sold increasing by approximately 24 per cent year-on-year.

In an earnings call following the results, Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer said the disappointing results were a result of the transitional period the company has gone through over the past year or so:

“What we know is this transformation is not a singular event. It is a series of events and quarters, some more challenging than others and some more successful than others and it will take time. In the case of Yahoo, I have stated in the past that we believe a transformation of this size and scale will take multiple years and we continue to believe that is the case today. Even so, given our top priority of long-term sustainable growth, we are not satisfied with our results this past quarter.”

The bright side
In better news, search – the single largest source of revenue for Yahoo – saw a two per cent increase in revenues to $428m, with price-per-click going up 15 per cent.

The company also revealed that the mobile segment of its display and search revenues more than doubled over the past year, though these figures werent broken out individually.

Finally, Yahoo announced that it had renegotiated the terms of the stake it will have to give up in hugely profitable Chinese tech company Alibaba. Previously, Yahoo had been ordered to sell back 208m shares to Alibaba, which has been amended to 140m.