Yahoo to cut 4% of workforce

Yahoo has announced it will cut 4% of its global workforce, or around 560 staff.

 

Silicon Valley blog TechCrunch, which first reported rumors of Yahoo layoffs a month ago, said the company had confirmed the move Tuesday.

 

A spokesman said Yahoo would “continue to hire on a global basis to support our key priorities.” Yahoo had approximately 14,100 staff at the end of September.

 

The layoffs are the latest in a series of cuts under CEO Carol Bartz, who took over in early 2009, as it struggles to compete with Facebook, Google and Twitter.

 

Masayashi Son, one of Yahoo’s biggest investors, said in a New York Times interview the future of Yahoo was “too sensitive” to discuss.

 

But Son, the chairman and CEO of Softbank, Yahoo’s Japan partner and also one of the biggest shareholders in Chinese e-commerce firm Alibaba, said Yahoo should have focused on technology rather than media.

 

“Yahoo was Jerry Yang’s baby. He did a great job creating the baby,” he said. “Unfortunately, some of the key executives after the foundation of the company couldn’t keep up with the technology innovation of the industry. They thought that Yahoo should become a media company.”

 

Yahoo owns 40% of Alibaba and around 35% of Yahoo Japan.