Yahoo gets scissors out, cuts 14% of workforce

Yahoo gets scissors out, cuts 14% of workforce
Yahoo gets serious

Yahoo has confirmed that it is changing into a 'bold, new Yahoo' with news that it is to cut 2,000 jobs from the company.

Yahoo has been wobbling for some time now, so this restructuring will come as no surprise, but the number of people being let go shows how serious the company is in turning its fortunes around.

It is thought that the 14 per cent cut in staff is likely to affect many areas of the business, including marketing and development.

Speaking about the changes, Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson said: "Today's actions are an important next step toward a bold, new Yahoo – smaller, nimbler, more profitable and better equipped to innovate as fast as our customers and our industry require.

"Our goal is to get back to our core purpose – putting our users and advertisers first – and we are moving aggressively to achieve that goal.''

Sue the day

The news of lay-offs comes after it was announced that Facebook is counter-suing Yahoo, after it accused the social network of "basing its entire social network model" on Yahoo architecture.

Not taking this accusation lying down Facebook has said that Yahoo's own technology is infringing on 10 of its own payments.

According to All Things Digital, many people within Yahoo were uneasy with the company taking on Facebook but CEO Thompson – formally of PayPal – was adamant it should go to court.

In total, Yahoo hopes to save $375 million in the restructuring plans.

Via WSJ

Marc Chacksfield

Marc Chacksfield is the Editor In Chief, Shortlist.com at DC Thomson. He started out life as a movie writer for numerous (now defunct) magazines and soon found himself online - editing a gaggle of gadget sites, including TechRadar, Digital Camera World and Tom's Guide UK. At Shortlist you'll find him mostly writing about movies and tech, so no change there then.