Yahoo Cuts 2,000 Employees in Restructuring

by Gareth Morgan

Yahoo has confirmed it is laying off 2,000 staffers as the one-time Internet star aims to “reshape” itself for the future.

The widely-anticipated job cuts will see Yahoo refocus on a select group of core businesses, aimed at delivering highly personalised services to users and advertisers, said company chief executive, Scott Thompson.

“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,” he said.

“Unfortunately, reaching that goal requires the tough decision to eliminate positions.”

It has yet to provide detailed guidance on where the redundancies will take place, although it was expected the job cuts would focus on marketing and international operations.

The result will leave Yahoo “smaller, nimbler, more profitable and better equipped to innovate as fast as our customers and our industry require,” Thompson added.

Rumors of hefty job losses at the firm have been circulating since Thompson took control of the company in January.

His appointment followed years of decline at the firm, following the rejection of a $44 billion takeover offer from Microsoft.

The company has been through two chief executives, since then, with Carol Bartz the most recent to departure, failing to turnaround Yahoo.

The company said it expects to save $375 million a year as a result of the job cuts, but whether that will be sufficient to drag the firm out of its current problems remains to be seen.

Originally published at V3.

This article was originally published on V3.