Yahoo, Inc.’s likely last financial report as an independent listed company unsurprisingly missed market expectations Monday as the once great internet company continued its fall from grace.

For the second quarter of 2016, Yahoo reported revenue of $1.3 billion, surprisingly up 5 percent of the same period in 2015, however, revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs dropped a whopping 19 percent to $841 million.

On an adjusted earnings basis, the company reported earnings per share of 9 cents, down from 43 percent for the same quarter in 2015; the market had been expecting adjusted earnings per share of $0.10, down from $0.16 from Q2 2015.

While revenue was up on paper, as Variety notes this was due to a change in how Yahoo recognizes revenue under its search agreement with Microsoft; if the adjustment has not taken place the headline revenue figure would have come in at $1.055 billion, down 15 percent year-on-year, and the cost of traffic acquisition would have been $214 million, up 7 percent over the same quarter last year.

Yahoo’s disastrous investment in social justice warrior blogging network Tumblr also headlined the financials with the company taking “impairment charges,” apparently newspeak for writing off worthless goodwill of $482 million due to what the company described as a “combination of factors;” the new write down comes on top of a $230 million “goodwill impairment charge” (again, see writedown) in the valuation of Tumblr in Q4 2015.

“With the lowest cost structure and headcount in a decade, we continue to make solid progress against our 2016 plan.  Through disciplined expense management and focused execution, we delivered Q2 results that met guidance across the board and in some areas exceeded it,” Yahoo Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer apparently seriously claimed in a statement.  “In addition to our efforts to improve the operating business, our board has made great progress on strategic alternatives.  We are relentlessly focused on delivering shareholder value.”

Adiós

Yahoo missing market expectations is so common now you’d actually have to question the ability for analysts to make predictions versus Yahoo’s ability to burn shareholder value, but that’s a moot point now because Yahoo’s days as a standalone company are numbered.

As we reported Sunday the fourth and final round of bidding for the auction of Yahoo’s core assets, that is the entire company minus its stake in Alibaba, closes today, and there’s a fair chance we will find out the successful buyer by the end of the week.

Whether another set of poor results will influence the price paid for Yahoo is unknown given that those interested in acquisition knew it was going to happen, be it perhaps like market analysts maybe not exactly to the right amount.

Stay tuned this week to see who ends up buying Yahoo, and the smart money is on Verizon with the head of AOL Tim Armstrong to be sitting in Marissa Mayer’s chair shortly thereafter.

Image credit: Cramp!/ YouTube/CC by 2.0