Yahoo may cut 'thousands' of jobs
Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson is reportedly preparing a massive restructuring at the ailing Web giant, and his plans include cutting thousands of jobs, according to various news sources.
Citing multiple unnamed sources both in and outside Yahoo, technology blog All Things Digital reported Monday that much of the restructuring could be announced as early as end-March. The changes mainly would target the company's large products as well as other areas where it lagged, such as public relations, marketing, research, marginal business and weak regional efforts.
"Some parts will be cut away, leaving resources to go to better efforts," one person close to the situation told All Things Digital. Specific announcements could take longer than this month to be unveiled, the source added.
An executive turnover was likely to happen, the report noted, pointing to earlier news that Yahoo's head of labs and search strategy, Prabhavar Raghavan, will leave to join rival Google for an undisclosed position.
A separate report by Bloomberg Monday quoted an e-mail statement from Yahoo spokesperson, Dana Lengkeek, as saying: "Our leadership is engaged in a process that will generate significant strategic change at Yahoo, but final decisions have not yet been made at this point. Beyond that, we will not comment."
Yahoo's current headcount numbered 14,100 based on its last quarterly report.
According to All Things Digital's sources, while Thompson, who became CEO in January, turned to Boston Consulting Group for advice on Yahoo's future, he has aggressively been pushing for quick change at the company.
Besides his role in deciding how Yahoo should sell off its Asian assets, Thompson also recently prompted a patent licensing battle against Facebook, threatening to sue the social networking giant if it did not agree to license patents held by Yahoo.
Talk of Yahoo's potential layoffs has been circulating in recent months, following departures of various key figures as the company struggles to stay afloat with tumbling sales and revenue, and takeover talks reportedly in a snag. Shortly after Thompson's appointment as CEO, Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang resigned from the board in January. Then, in February, Yahoo's chairman Roy Bostock and three other directors said they would not seek re-election at the next shareholder meeting.