Tying the sale of these domains to Yahoo's quarterly revenues -- even bringing them up in the same sentence -- is the wrong context in which to discuss them in the first place. Even if Yahoo raises a million dollars from this sale, it'll have no material impact on the bottom line.

That said, there are other factors at play in a move like this: 1) PR value (it got the attention of the tech press, after all); 2) the sale of nonproductive assets for any sum greater than $0 isn't necessarily a bad thing. Even if it has no measurable effect on the quarterly results.

If I own a broken appliance that I lack the time, financial interest, or skill to fix -- but I can sell it to someone who can make use of it for a few bucks -- I might as well sell it. It won't make a dent in my yearly income, but it'll be better than holding onto the useless (to me) asset.

There's a world of difference between:

"The company has simply decided..."

and

"The company has probably decided..."