Yahoo axes 2,000 employees, 14 percent of its workforce

“Yahoo is laying off 2,000 employees as new CEO Scott Thompson eliminates jobs that don’t fit into his plans for turning around the beleaguered Internet company,” The Associated Press reports. “The cuts announced Wednesday represent about 14 percent of the 14,100 workers employed by Yahoo. Yahoo estimated it will save about $375 million annually after the layoffs are completed later this year. The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company will absorb a pre-tax charge of $125 million to $145 million to account for severance payments. The charge will reduce Yahoo’s earnings in the current quarter.”

AP reports, “Workers losing their jobs were being notified Wednesday. Some of the affected employees will stay on for an unspecified period of time to finish various projects, according to Yahoo. The housecleaning marks Yahoo’s sixth mass layoff in the past four years under three different CEOs. This one will inflict the deepest cuts yet, eclipsing a cost-cutting spree that laid off 1,500 workers in late 2008 as Yahoo tried to cope with the Great Recession.”

“Thompson is betting Yahoo will be able to sell more advertising if it’s more astute in the analysis of the personal information that it collects from the roughly 700 million people who visit its website each month,” AP reports. “He is also looking for ways to improve the products that it makes for smartphones and tablet computers, a goal that may require hiring more specialists in mobile technology.”

Read more in the full article here.

MacDailyNews Take: Good luck to the affected Yahoo employees and may they soon find gainful employment.

[Thanks to MacDailyNews Readers “Fred Mertz” and “Lynn Weiler” for the heads up.]