Yahoo! Shares Jump on Strong Earnings

Updated from 4:40 p.m. EST to provide comments from the conference call.

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Yahoo!(YHOO) shares rose in extended trading after the company posted better-than-expected first-quarter results.

Yahoo! reported earnings of 23 cents per share on $1.08 billion in revenue. Analysts polled by Thomson Reuters were expecting earnings of 17 cents per share on $1.06 billion in revenue.

Regarding the company's recent layoffs, Chief Financial Officer Tim Morse said on the company's conference call he expects it will take approximately a year to realize the cost savings. Yahoo! recently laid off 2,000 workers in an effort to reorganize the business.

Yahoo! posted strong first-quarter results

The company also gave stronger-than-expected second-quarter revenue guidance. It said it expects revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs (TAC) to range from $1.03 billion to $1.14 billion. Wall Street's current consensus revenue view sits at $1.08 billion. Analysts estimates typically exclude TACs.

A big revelation on the conference call came from Chief Executive Officer Scott Thompson, who announced that Yahoo! is cutting 50 properties, but did not say which properties were being let go.

Thompson was also asked about the sale of its Asian assets, specifically its stake in Alibaba and Yahoo! Japan. Thompson noted that Yahoo! is "continuing to pursue active discussions with Alibaba."

"We are pursuing a simpler transaction in order to monetize a portion of our Alibaba stake," he said on the call. Thompson also acknowledged there is a valuation gap with regard to Yahoo! Japan, and said that noting was imminent about monetizing that stake.

"In the first quarter, Yahoo!'s results came in at the high end of our guidance range and beat consensus on revenue and profits," said Thompson in the press release, adding later: "We also made changes to resize the organization and establish a new leadership structure to quickly deliver the best user and advertiser experiences at scale."