Yahoo Make Job Cuts

Earlier in this month we talked about the precarious position for workers over at Yahoo and how the uncertainty was impacting the company. For those of you who missed our earlier coverage here is the crux of the situation:

“Things that are going on at Yahoo are getting very strange, and the workers, who have already endured round after round of layoffs. For those of your who missed our earlier coverage here is a look at how the situation that the workers at Yahoo had to endure before the most recent change in management:

‘Over 650 workers face an impending lay off as the Yahoo Inc., a California-based worldwide web portal, plans to slash its workforce to reduce costs and increase profits. Reports said that around 5% of its staff would be eliminated soon, which is equivalent to 650 employees, from the product units of the multinational company. Yahoo had about 14,100 employees as of October.

In earlier months, Yahoo’s chief executive Carol A. Bartz announced that Yahoo is currently devising ways to cut its costs since the company has been suffering from slow growth in the online advertising business over the past few years, which has been blamed on excessive bureaucracy and lack of innovation in the company. This statement has spun a lot of industry rumors that Yahoo Inc. will soon lay off some of its employees. However, no exact number of employees or any concrete plans have been released as of today.’

While the company has gotten rid of about a CEO a year for the last five years, and many of them came complete with rounds of layoffs in order to cut down on the overhead of the company, many people are wondering how many job losses will come with the addition of Chief Executive Scott Thompson to the team.”

Well it looks like the bad news is coming now, at least according to unofficial sources. The folks over at AllThingsDigital are citing information from as yet unnamed sources that the layoffs are coming now.

The good news is that in the current moment the layoffs are going to be small and selective, and the rest of the cuts will come from leaving hundreds of positions that are currently vacant unfilled. Though this is only an opening volley, and under the reign of their newest CEO there may be more changes to come, and more jobs lost.

The company is expected to show some very weak profits, and depending on which analyst you ask perhaps even a sizeable loss, when its reports for the next quarter are released on Tuesday.

Current the company employs 13,700 workers. That is down a significant number from the number listed the same time last year. Last year the company employed about 14,100. Despite the company’s flagging reputation, multiple senior management changes and a number of waves of layoffs the company is still the 15^th biggest employer in Silicon Valley. At the current moment no one is sure exactly what path the company will take to restore its profitability and its reputation with end users.