The tones of the voices on the Yahoo! earnings call this afternoon were markedly defensive, tense, and determined as company officials reported earnings for the third quarter rolling in at 5 percent less than the third quarter of 2010.

 The results were not a far cry from the expectations of analysts who predicted a less-than-sparkling quarter from the company.

Following the abrupt firing of its CEO, Carol Bartz (News - Alert), last month, Yahoo! was not expected to report stellar third quarter results, and Tim Morse, chief financial officer for the company, prefaced his remarks on the financial state of the company with the disclaimer that the board will “remain focused on executing against our key strategies to build best-in-class technology…and grow monetization.”

Revenue excluding traffic acquisition costs rolled in around $1,072 million, and income from operations decreased to $177 million compared to $189 million in the third quarter of 2010. Yahoo! blames the year-over-year decreases on the revenue share related to the Search Agreement with Microsoft (News - Alert). (Mmmmmmk.)

No, seriously, the results from the third quarter reflect “$53 million in search operating cost reimbursements from Microsoft under the Search Agreement.” Net earnings per share decreased 21 percent from Q3 2010 to $0.23 from $0.29 as well.

Morse noted that the company’s third quarter revenue was “fractionally below” expectations, and that, despite administrative setbacks, Yahoo! launched eight new video programs targeted at women. (Yippee.)

In response to questions from listeners, Yahoo! officials made mention of the fact that the company’s headcount has stabilized (how big was Bartz’s head??), and attrition was lower. They also noted that they anticipate the “normal sequential bump” in the forthcoming fourth quarter’s results as the company has seen over the last couple of years.

Juliana Kenny graduated from the University of Connecticut with a double degree in English and French. After managing a small company for two years, she joined TMC (News - Alert) as a Web Editor for TMCnet. Juliana currently focuses on the call center and CRM industries, but she also writes about cloud telephony and network gear including softswitches.

Edited by Chris DiMarco