Yahoo Earnings Report, Outlook Anticipated

Yahoo Inc. this week will be one of the first big media companies to report third-quarter results, offering an early sign of how much business may have been hurt by the Sept. 11 attacks, and how long the damage might last.

Yahoo, whose Internet advertising business has been struggling for more than a year, already has said the third quarter will reflect no substantial effect from the attacks, which occurred close to the end of the quarter.

But there are widespread expectations that forecasts for its fourth quarter and much of next year could decline as would-be advertisers suffer their own business difficulties and are forced to cut back on spending.

And the United States’ military response has yet to be figured into the company’s outlook.

In an interview last week, Yahoo Chief Executive Terry Semel said he did not expect any monumental change in the depressed advertising business until the second half of next year.

Most analysts who follow Yahoo say more layoffs are also a possibility, though by no means a certainty. And the longer Yahoo’s troubles persist, the more they are wondering whether the company, which has worked hard to avoid being acquired, can remain independent.

For these reasons, the focus when Yahoo’s report is issued Wednesday will not be so much on its third-quarter numbers as on the outlook it provides. Most analysts agree the company is likely to meet the current consensus estimate for an operating profit of a penny of a share, on sales of $170.5 million.

On Friday, its stock fell 33 cents to close at $10.35 on Nasdaq.