Stefan Mileschin

Troubled search outfit Yahoo’s quarterly earnings disappointed the cocaine nose jobs of Wall Street in what may be the company’s last financial report before it flogs off its core business.

Yahoo announced a $482 million write-down on the value of Tumblr, the social media service that it bought in 2013 for $1.1 billion.

Yahoo is in the process of auctioning off its search and advertising business, and is expected to choose a winner this week. The company said its board has made “great progress on strategic alternatives” but did not comment further on the auction process.

Verizon and AT&T Inc are said to be in the running to acquire the core business, along with private equity firm TPG Capital and a consortium led by Quicken Loans founder Dan Gilbert and backed by Warren Buffett.

Yahoo is not in trouble of course. It owns large stakes in Chinese ecommerce giant Alibaba and Yahoo Japan, which are worth far more than the company’s internet business.

After the Tumblr write-down, the company posted a net loss of $439.9 million compared with a loss of $21.6 million a year earlier.

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