"Yahoo! Inc. soundly beat Wall Street expectations for the second quarter, surpassing even unofficial ""whisper"" estimates for results and more than doubling its revenue from a year ago.</br></br>The Santa Clara, Calif., company, one of the top destinations on the Internet, recorded a net loss of $15.1 million, or seven cents a diluted share, compared with a loss of $14.2 million, or eight cents a share, in the year-ago period. Both quarters include merger-related charges.</br></br>Without the charges, Yahoo earned $28.3 million, or 11 cents a share, compared with year-earlier operating profit of $1.5 million, or one cent a share. The analysts' consensus had been eight cents a share, according to First Call Corp., while some unofficial estimates had recently crept up to nine or 10 cents.</br></br>Worries that Yahoo wouldn't meet those whisper numbers had caused its stock to slump earlier this week. It closed yesterday down $8.0625 to $167.0625 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading, but rebounded to $171 in after-hours trading following the announcement, according to Instinet Inc.</br></br>Yahoo reported continued growth in traffic to its popular Web portal and index site, as well solid operating margins. Revenue swelled to $115.2 million from $44.9 million a year ago, and above analysts' estimates of about $103 million."