LIVE: Yahoo Hits Earnings, Stock Soars As Yahoo Will Spin Alibaba Stake Off

Yahoo just announced its earnings, but the biggest news is that it will spin its stake in Alibaba out into a separate company. The stock is up about 6% after hours as investors digest the news.

Earnings were more or less right on target with analysts' expectations:

• EPS of $0.30 vs. analysts expectations of $0.29. Last quarter Yahoo blew analysts' expectations away -- not so this time.
• Revenue (minus traffic costs) of $1.18 billion, slightly less than analysts' expectations of $1.19 billion.

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Top line growth was important as revenue has basically been declining since 2009. The fourth quarter is usually Yahoo's biggest, but it dropped slightly from last year.

Now that Alibaba is public and that chapter of Yahoo's history is basically closed, why should investors buy Yahoo today? Mayer hasn't given a convincing explanation yet, and the company's performance remains flat in its core businesses, but she has another chance on Yahoo's earnings call later today. We'll be updating this post as we hear more.