According to Silicon Alley Insider, a source close to Yahoo is confirming that Yahoo! CEO Jerry Yang will indeed press on with plans for an aggressive round of layoffs. The source has indicated that the layoffs will likely be announced at Yahoo’s conference call scheduled for later this week, and that roughly 1,500 to 2,500 employees will be laid off, rather than the “hundreds” cited by the New York Times and others.
Furthermore, SAI indicates that the list of names was reportedly being finalized over the weekend, and that some of those on the chopping won’t be notified until February 12th.
The last major layoff at Yahoo was in 2001, where 400 employees, or roughly 13% of their workforce, were sent packing. This was also a period of major restructuring, with the company whittling down their 44 business units to just six. At this time, they had hoped to reduce their reliance on advertisements for income, and instead shift focus to bolstering revenue through other means.
Considering that the 2001 layoffs were announced during their 3rd quarter conference call, rumors that it will be announced during a conference call this week seem pretty likely. Whether or not this can help Yahoo compete with Google in the long run remains to be seen.
