Yahoo's first-quarter earnings more than tripled, helped by rising marketing services revenue, to beat analyst estimates.

Yahoo reported income of $542.2 million, or 37 cents per share, compared with $142.4 million, or 10 cents per share, in the year-ago quarter. On an adjusted basis, Yahoo earned 11 cents per share.

Revenue rose to $1.82 billion from $1.67 billion. Excluding traffic acquisition costs, revenue rose to $1.35 billion from $1.18 billion.

Analysts had expected adjusted earnings of 9 cents per share on $1.32 billion in revenue, excluding traffic acquisition costs.

Marketing services revenue rose 7% to $1.57 billion from $1.47 billion.

"Yahoo is beginning to realize the benefits of the very substantial and deliberate long-term investments we've made to capitalize on the opportunities ahead," Yahoo Chief Executive Jerry Yang said in a prepared statement.