SAN FRANCISCO — Yahoo said Wednesday it would lay off 2,000 employees, or about 14 percent of its workforce, as part of a broader restructuring effort.þþThe layoffs are part of a reorganization under Scott Thompson, Yahoo’s new chief executive, who joined the company from PayPal in January. The Internet company said the job cuts would not be across the board, and that it would double down in key areas.þþ“We are intensifying our efforts on our core businesses and redeploying resources to our most urgent priorities,” Mr. Thompson said in a press release. “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.”þþThe company, which employs about 14,000 people, did not specify which divisions would be cut back. According to sources inside the Internet company who asked not to be named because they were not authorized to speak, Yahoo’s product division, which is headed by Blake Irving and oversees its consumer and advertising products, is expected to sustain the heaviest losses. Its media division is expected to stay relatively in tact.þþYahoo said it expected to realize $375 million of annualized savings from the layoffs, about half of which would be reflected in its second-quarter results.þþIn an earnings call in January, Mr. Thompson hinted that much of Yahoo’s future innovation would derive from its wealth of data on roughly 700 million users. Yahoo has one of the largest audiences on the Web.þþ“The data is very, very impressive,” Mr. Thompson said in the call. “You’ll see some interesting, data-oriented experiences coming out sooner versus later.”þþBut three months into his new role, some sources said the ability of Yahoo to commercialize and leverage its data was not yet clear.þþThe layoffs come as Yahoo braces for two external battles. One is a proxy battle with Daniel Loeb of Third Point, one of its largest shareholders, who has demanded that Yahoo add four new board seats, including one for himself.þþThe other is a patent dispute with Facebook. After it sued Facebook last month, accusing the social media company of infringing on Yahoo’s patents, Facebook countersued Tuesday, claiming Yahoo has violated patents that cover some 80 percent of its revenue last year, amounting to more than $4 billion.
Source: NY Times
