Online sector spending

Yahoo indicated it saw weaker online-ad spending during the quarter among some categories of advertisers affected by broader economic issues. Spending by advertisers in the financial, travel and retail areas declined or grew more slowly in the fourth quarter compared with a year earlier, Yahoo President Susan Decker told analysts during a conference call. Still, "the majority of the key categories we serve are projecting online growth in budgets in 2008," Ms. Decker said, citing growing spending by advertisers in the auto, pharmaceutical, telecom and consumer-packaged-goods areas during the fourth quarter.