Yahoo Cancels Earnings Call, Dodges Hacking Questions

Yahoo! has taken the unusual step of cancelling the conference call following its earnings announcement on Tuesday.

Public companies usually announce their results and then stage a conference call in which senior executives deliver set pieces before taking questions from financial analysts, institutional investors and, sometimes, from media too. The question and answer sessions are seen as an important accountability mechanism and can sometimes become rather tetchy if executives can't deliver convincing answers.

It's entirely conceivable a Q&A with Yahoo! could become heated as the company fends off critics of its colossal security SNAFU and allegations it provided US authorities with a backdoor.

Those messes have led to suggestions that Verizon, which has promised to acquire the Purple Palace, might either walk away or seek a lower price as the portal arguable has less value now than when the acquisition deal was done.

Investors in the p0wned portal haven't had a good time of it for years, so the prospect of further devaluation means there's every chance they could have queued up to ask pointed questions of executives on this week's call.

Yahoo! says it won't stage the call “Due to the pending transaction with Verizon”. The company says it will instead offer “supplemental financial information … on the Company's Investor Relations website at investor.yahoo.net.”

But investors won't have the usual chance to probe execs.

For what it's worth, Yahoo!'s boilerplate says “By creating highly personalized experiences for our users, we keep people connected to what matters most to them, across devices and around the world.”

But not so personalized that it will actually answer questions, or answer questions about how its actions have impacted investors' bank balances. ®

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