Reports: 650-700 layoffs expected at Yahoo today

There won't be much holiday cheer at Yahoo today, if reports about a round of layoffs are true.

Word is that anywhere from 650 to 700 people will lose their jobs today, mostly in the product groups headed by Blake Irving, a former Microsoft exec brought in by CEO Carol Bartz in April as part of a massive turnaround effort for the company. The cuts would represent about 5 percent of the company's workforce, last reported at a little over 14,000 in October.

Kara Swisher's Boomtown blog notes that those being let go will be notified today and likely will have to leave the facilities immediately. The cuts will be completed by early afternoon, Boomtown reported.

Under Bartz, the company has continued to struggle, despite a search deal with Microsoft and attempts to re-focus their key efforts around original content and other core sites, such as e-mail and finance.