Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz declared Tuesday that the struggling internet portal’s turnaround is “proceeding on schedule,” as she tried to put an upbeat spin on financial results that registered double-digit percentage declines for both revenue and profit.

“We are very confident we are headed in the right direction,” Bartz, who is known for her colorful language, told investment analysts on a post-report conference call.

Although the Sunnyvale, California-based internet company announced that revenue fell 24 percent and earnings fell 28 percent, Wall Street’s expectations for the purple-hued web pioneer were sufficiently low enough that the results were greeted positively by investors.

Yahoo shares were trading up 2.3 percent in post-close action, after having declined 1.38 percent during the day’s trading.

Yahoo’s first-quarter’s quarter profit was $223 million, or 17 cents per share, beating Wall Street’s consensus estimate of 16 cents per share. One year ago, Yahoo earned $310 million, or 22 cents per share.

On the bright side, Yahoo’s display ad business grew 10 percent in the quarter to $471 million, even as the company’s overall sales declined to $1.21 billion.

“We continued to extend our lead as the world’s premier digital media company with users to Yahoo branded properties increasing 15 percent year over year and minutes spent increasing 17 percent,” Bartz said in a statement.

Interestingly, Yahoo’s search-technology partnership with Microsoft, which was designed to combat market-leader Google’s dominance, actually has cost Yahoo money, at least in the short-term. Thanks, in part, to Yahoo’s revenue-sharing arrangement with Microsoft, Yahoo’s search ad revenue declined 46 percent.

Yahoo believes that the Microsoft deal will ultimately save it money over the long-term, and said that it will stop shrinking sometime later this year.

In other earnings news, tech giant IBM reported a 10 percent increase in earnings, while leading chip-maker Intel said that its profit increased by 25 percent on increasing demand from business clients.

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