Thompson also said Yahoo will make "better use of [its] vast data" to provide personalized content, targeted ads, and useful analytics for its advertisers.

Thomson and Tim Morse, Yahoo's chief financial officer, said in the earnings call that the layoffs the company made earlier this month will save it US$375 million per year.

As the company narrows its focus, there will almost certainly be more layoffs.

"I don't take the decision to eliminate jobs lightly," Thompson said, "but we have way too many people for the amount of output for this business."

The executives also expressed disappointment with Yahoo's search partnership with Microsoft. Morse said that it "didn't make as much progress, frankly, as we wanted to or envisioned for first quarter and that is concerning."