San Francisco  - Yahoo tripled its third-quarter profits Tuesday as aggressive cost-cutting offset a slight decline in revenue.

The struggling internet pioneer said that it earned 186 million dollars compared to 54 million dollars in the year-ago quarter. Revenue fell to 1.57 billion dollars from 1.79 billion dollars.

The company has slashed more than 2,000 jobs this year in an effort to rein in costs. It also signed a search and advertising deal with Microsoft in July in an attempt by both companies to begin challenging the dominance of Google in web searches.

"With revenue coming in above our guidance and flat sequentially, we had a solid third quarter that signals our major businesses have stabilized," said Chief Executive Carol Bartz. (dpa)