A insider source from the Silicon Alley Insider is confirming that Yahoo! is about to cut 20% (1500-2500 jobs) within the next 2 weeks. With its market share dying and the stock dwindling for the last year while rivals have thrived is it the beginning of the end?
Others have written that it might be a sign of good changes for Yahoo! “trimming the fat”.
The decision to go ahead with lay-off is said to be largely dependent on stock price: Yahoo’s stock trading in the low $20s has gotten Jerry’s and president Sue Decker’s attention. Jerry will feel vulnerable if the stock goes into the teens and will try whatever he can to prop it up. He’s not ready to give up the CEO job, sell-out, or shop the company around at this point.
When you look at how much Yahoo has put into their Panama system but yet they have dumb shits running the affiliate program can this really be a surprise?
there is a funny quote in the techcrunch comments:
# Brent
January 20th, 2008 at 11:25 am
Why don’t they lay off customer service? Wait, they can’t because they don’t have any.
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Youch 20% for a company the size of yahoo is massive.
that is just insane to fire all these people. I think government intervention might be needed with this issue.
They are now saying that if Yahoo tries to go private to avaoid Microsoft, that they will have shed 33% of staff and sell some future star businesses like alibaba.com
That is brutal, I hope them selling to microsoft helps the big picture out. I wander how Google feels about it.
oh dear yahoo struggling?
…and now Meg leaves eBay!
Web 2.0 gets a whole new meaning!
So lets say on average they’re paying 3000$/mo to each employee.
2400 x 3000 = $7,200,000
7,200,000 x 12 = $86,400,000
Looks like yahoo just found a new way to get back into the game.
The bigger question is: Is Google going to Pull a Yahoo at some point.
Some believe social sites are the search engine of the future, but all I know is that time has a way of backhanding those in the mouth who get to full of themselves
Not the smartest thing in the world for Yahoo to do, especially in light of them axing 2,000 people. Of course, if you read Shoe’s post about his emails with the Yahoo affiliate people, they don’t seem to be that on top of things.
hmm, spend 700 million buying a display advertising company, then layoff 2000 people 9 months later.
yep, they have no clue what they’re doing.
This doesn’t suprise me at all because Yahoo has some serious issues. I’ve placed a lot of calls to various support departments over the past 10 years or so and Yahoo has always had the worst customer service hands down.
Their customer service agents are absolute morons (and jerks). Not to mention you have to wait on hold for up to an hour sometimes just to get them on the line. There have been cases where they have flat out told me “I don’t know how to fix that..there’s nothing we can do” really makes me wonder why such a huge company would let this kind of nonsense go on?
I’ve actually seen better results with Yahoo Search Marketing than I have from Adwords. It seems so fickin’ impossible these days to figure out what Google wants.
Why can’t they just copy what the other services offer? Panama is okay but they need an API!
I wish they could take some of those jobs and add a scheduler to Yahoo Search Marketing.
This one doesn’t come to my surprise, I always knew Yahoo! can make mess… hahha
ypnstinks.com. yahoo needs to just do some basic things to their ypn network and they’d be a competitor to google again.
The tech bubble of the 90s was characterized with a lot of overvalued companies that really didn’t do anything. Remember how many different ways you could buy pet food online? In this new round of tech, there are lots of companies that concentrate on adding value and they are either bought by the bigger companies, Google buying DoublClick is the biggest purchase I can think of, or they’re growing and trying to figure out how to build more equity. There are a lot of companies in Silicon Alley right now headed by vets of the last bubble, and they are doing it right this time.
I think you are spot on. Yahoo is not going anywhere. They are just trimming in certain areas and expanding in others. They, like many businesses, will settle for second place in some sectors, like search, and concentrate to improve market share in other sectors.
well google has been doing a lot of shitty things lately as well.
oh no… I really hope yahoo pulls it together because I would hate for google to gobble up even more of the market.
Good question I will save this for my q&a post
Shoe, do you think there is another bubble in tech right now and when do you think it will collapse?
exactly. i knew heads would be rolling, but 2400 heads is a bit extreme…
This is no surprise. Yahoo is trying to become profitable again and since Google is stomping every player in the search industry cutting jobs is a logical choice. I think that Yahoo is also trying to look better on paper so that they can be in a better position to sell themselves to Microsoft.
The only thing that needs to be cut over at Yahoo is the leadership. They’ve been doing a lousy job for quite a while now. Sooner or later, if the leadership doesn’t change, the ownership will.
Shoe,
What’s your thoughts on Yahoo linking out to other sites? Have you already done a post on this? I’ll do a search and take a closer look, but thought it was interesting that they’ve started to link out to articles on The Wall Street Journal, NY Times, and other sites: http://www.internetmarker.com/2007/12/05/yahoo-linking-to-other-sites-on-homepage/
Thanks,
John
I see this as preparation for merger or out right sell. Since Microsoft sucks so terribly perhaps it’s for the best that Yahoo! be bought. Yahoo! sucks, but not as much as Microsoft MSN or whatever it is they call it these days.
Although I am deeply sorry for the lives and families of the people who will be cut, as an organization this was needed a long time ago. Hopefully they redefine their strategy.
I think trimming the fat is part of business. It’s a business move for yahoo. They’ve been buying out companies left and right, so they’re coming short on the budget I guess.
But then again, I’m really annoyed with what they did on your affiliate account shoe. That customer representative is down right dumb!
What I thought about that for a minute though, I thought, how good is it for Google to have more of a market share?
Oh, that would be a tragedy if Yahoo went under, that would be like .001% of my blog traffic.
poor old yahoo… I think there time is up. They are so difficult to work with, and so incompatible and the traffic volume sucks. I think Google should just buy them out… But at least they are not like MSN… WOW they really suck!
Forgot to add that according to cnnmoney Yahoo! is in talks to buy Sparks Networks for around 180 million. Sparks Networks includes three major dating sites. Yahoo! will increase market share there too and wipe out some competition in one shot apparently. I like what I’ve seen out of Yahoo! for some months now.
GREAT move for Yahoo! imo
It stinks to get laid off but with an impending reccession and with media companies in general getting thrashed on wall street right now it’s a good move to consolidate the workforce. Yahoo! has been gaining market share recently, not losing it, and to me this shows their commitment to being number one.
Fair warning to all, the days of extreme profit margins online are ending quickly with each new patent and with each new aquisition. Cutting bloat has been optional up until now because of huge profit margins, to compete its no longer optional, imo.
I knew yahoo was big but I didn’t know they employeed that many people. The cut doesnt surprise me though cause the company is a piecemeal company with no real focus. Plus its been how long and they still havent fully launched YSM
I knew this was coming soon. Yahoo just fails to adapt to everything that is happening now and spends more of their time trying not to be like google that it is almost becoming they will make their company shitty just so it won’t be like they are copying google.
an insider at Yahoo told me Yahoo is coming out with a new advertising platform which is called “the titanic”
They are losing their market share and even executives such as Steve Souders are jumping ship, things don’t exactly seem great for them at this point.
I agree on the comment part, each time im having a question reg. Yahoo Search Marketing, it takes them 2-3 days to come up with an unuseable answer, and if I reply back and tell them it doesnt solve my problem I seldom hear from them, most of the times I find the answers on some of the affiliate forums. So I hear ya, fire thouse support folks they arnt worth a dime.
I do not know if this is part of the upcoming recession Buzz or not, and that in itself probably does not matter. Big companies like Yahoo are always being talked about and I only wish I had invested in them even 10 years ago… enviable ehh! But now a lot of analysts are predicting a decent rise in home business growth, so maybe the cut yahoo people can put their expertise to work in that arena of self employment. As long as they do violate any contractual terms.
I do not know if this is part of the upcoming recession Buzz or not, and that in itself probably does not matter. Big companies like Yahoo are always being talked about and I only wish I had invested in them even 10 years ago… enviable ehh! But now a lot of analysts are predicting a decent rise in home business growth, so maybe the cut yahoo people can put their expertise to work in that arena of self employment. As long as they do violate any contractual terms.
http://www.ispamurls.com
That’s what they get for banning the Shoe…