Yahoo To Lay Off 700

Yahoo is planning a lay-off about five percent of its total workforce, or 675 people, as it reported a first-quarter profit that fell sharply from a year earlier. The latest cuts were about 1,000 jobs in February 2008 and another 1,500 or so late last year.

 

Carol Bartz (News - Alert), Yahoo's new chief executive, was blunt on the company's conference, noting in no uncertain terms that Yahoo's current management structure is inefficient. "You have three people telling project engineers what to do, and nobody's ****ing doing anything."

 

The layoff announcement came as the company reported its net income fell to $118 million, or 8 cents per share, down 78 percent from a year earlier. Excluding some one-time items from the 2008 first quarter and one-time charges from the first quarter of 2009, Yahoo earned 15 cents per share, down 17 percent from a year ago.

 

Yahoo sales fell 13 percent to $1.6 billion. Excluding advertising sales that Yahoo shares with partners (traffic acquisition costs), the company reported revenue of $1.16 billion.

 

Most observers might agree that Yahoo has suffered over the last several years as Google, Facebook and MySpace have grown as popular destinations for Internet users.

 

Yahoo executives do not expect a turn-around in the second quarter, either, warning that results will erode again the second quarter, with total revenue expected to range from $1.42 billion and $1.63 billion. Yahoo's revenue totaled $1.8 billion in last year's second quarter.

 

Yahoo product managers, in particular, appear to be among the most likely to receive pink slips, some believe.