Yahoo pink slips arrive
As CNET News.com reported last week, Yahoo laid off more than 1,000 employees on Tuesday. One source inside the company said the number was 1,100, which is slightly higher than expected. The layoffs bring the headcount down to about 13,200 employees.
Yahoo human resources had booked every conference room at the Sunnyvale, Calif., headquarters to meet with employees being laid off, according to the source.
Yahoo executives warned last month that they would be laying off about 1,000 people in February. That was before Microsoft's offer to acquire the company. Yahoo has rejected the bid, but reportedly has signaled it would consider a higher offer.
"We are aligning resources to support our big bets: starting points, must buy, and open," a Yahoo spokeswoman said. That refers to Yahoo's new mission of being the most popular starting place for people on the Internet and the most popular advertising platform, as well as the company's focus on opening up Yahoo's network to third-party publishers.
Asked to confirm the exact number of employees affected or what departments they were in, the spokeswoman said the company was not providing details.
"We're making these targeted reductions in areas of our business that don't support our critical growth initiatives," she said.
(CNET News.com's Stefanie Olsen contributed to this report.)
Elinor Mills covers Internet security and privacy. She joined CNET News in 2005 after working as a foreign correspondent for Reuters in Portugal and writing for The Industry Standard, the IDG News Service, and the Associated Press. E-mail Elinor.
Still, I do wonder why Yahoo felt it necessary to fire 1,100 people. Sure, stock price is down, but is that the only reason, or is it because this last quarter was far worse than others? Or, do they forcast upcoming quarters to be worse? (Sorry, I've not followed Yahoo's financials, but it always amazes me when a profitable company fires so many people.)
In a buyout, the executives generally make out like bandits. It's the rank and file that get screwed.
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