Reports in the New York Times and elsewhere have newly-installed Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz planning her first round of layoffs at the Internet giant, with an announcement expected as early as next week as the company reports on its fourth quarter financial results. According to reports citing sources with knowledge of the situation, the layoffs could impact several hundred Yahoo employees; sources within Yahoo speaking on condition of anonymity say that job cuts are on the table but haven’t yet been set in stone.
New layoffs would be Yahoo’s third round of job cuts in a little over a year; former Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang cut 1,000 workers in January 2008, and another 1,500 positions at the end of 2008 shortly before vacating the CEO chair.
Bartz has a reputation as a blunt, decisive executive, and the industry so far views her as taking decisive steps to shore uyp Yahoo’s strengths while cutting away dead or unproductive parts of Yahoo’s business. Bartz has also re-opened talks with Microsoft; although few expect Microsoft to make another outright offer for the company, industry watchers note that some sort of search partnership might benefit both parties.
The economic downturn has sharply curtailed the amount of money companies spend on online advertising, which means companies like Yahoo which depend on ad-supported products and services are seeing a fall-off in revenue. Even online ad titan Google has cut jobs and tightened its belt to bolster its bottom line.
