Yahoo begins layoffs
Published: 11 Dec 2008 08:22 GMT
Yahoo began issuing pink slips on Wednesday to the majority of the employees affected by its previously announced 10 percent job cut, the company confirmed.
Most of the approximately 1,500 layoffs affect employees at Yahoo's US-based locations and come from a number of areas within the company, the company said.
"There was an across-the-board review [for potential cuts] and no one area received a pass," said Brad Williams, a Yahoo spokesman, who noted that Yahoo engaged in a strategic review of where it would make most sense to cut the positions.
Williams, however, declined to elaborate on which areas of Yahoo's business suffered the most layoffs.
Yahoo is continuing to evaluate which of its operations are no longer a priority and can be shut down, and which of its businesses should be placed in a maintenance mode with no further investments, Williams said.
Those decisions are anticipated to come in the following weeks and months, he added.
The latest round of layoffs is part of Yahoo's previously announced plan to reduce its annualised expenses by $400m (£270m) by the end of the year. The company outlined the plan in its third-quarter earnings announcement in October.
Yahoo, which has annualised expenses of $3.9bn before the cuts, also plans to achieve its $400m goal by consolidating facilities and moving some of its business to areas where it costs less to operate, as well as shutting down parts of its business and putting others in a maintenance-only mode.
While Yahoo is reducing its workforce, one start-up has seen an opportunity to snap up talented staff.
TokBox, an online video-calling company, sent out a taco truck to Yahoo's headquarters in the afternoon. The start-up intended to give free tacos to the recently terminated employees, as well as conduct job interviews, a company spokeswoman said.
Yahoo has initiated layoffs twice this year. In February, the company cut 1,000 jobs after its fourth-quarter profit took a hit.
With some economists expecting the recession to continue throughout 2009, it remains to be seen whether more layoffs will be seen at the internet-search pioneer.
Credit: Yahoo pink slips issued, recruiters circling above from CNET News.com
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