Yahoo will make its numbers by hook or by, well, you know

Yahoo reports first-quarter earnings later today. Everyone agrees CEO Jerry Yang has to report better-than-expected numbers if Yahoo hopes to continue fighting for its independence from Microsoft. So guess what? Yahoo is going to report better-than-expected numbers. "In any Internet business, you can pull the stops out in any one or two quarters," Jeffrey Lindsay, an Internet analyst at Sanford C. Bernstein, told the WSJ. "They'd be very crazy not to." If he's getting pressure from Yang, here are three ways for CFO Blake Jorgensen could cook the books for today's report and keep his sanity:

1. Public companies must disclose how much tax they expect to pay. Yahoo could project a lower tax rate than they actually expect, lowering costs and increasing profits. This gimmick shows up in the filings, but most investors won't bother to ask questions if Yahoo's shares go up. The bearish reality behind Google's big first-quarter numbers aren't slowing down the rise of its shares.
2. Delaying expenses. (Any Yahoos had travel denied? Drop us a line and let us know the details.)
3. Rejiggering ads to generate more revenue per page. Google is a master at this, but Yahoo may be slowly learning some of its tricks.(Photo by cogdogblog)
4. Relaxing on click fraud. Yahoo claims to be deeply concerned with erroneous clicks on advertisers' ads. But if a little more cash keeps the company independent, maybe the company's automated filters can be dialed down for a month or so.

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