It’s a tough decision to have layoffs during the holidays. But employees at Yahoo can’t say they didn’t expect it, after having been given a heads up in October. Although, of the roughly 15,000 global workforce, it’s been unclear as to who exactly would receive a pink slip.
Today, is the day that we’ll know. Yahoo, which has been in a pickle the last year, is following through as it’s reportedly laying off 10 percent of its workforce on Wednesday.
The move comes after Microsoft hired Yahoo executive Qi Lu to be president of the Internet services business. The questions are: With 1,500 Yahoo’s with resumes in hand, how many will reach out to Microsoft, or how many will Microsoft reach out to?
Here’s the latest updates from my increasingly favorite breaking news source, Twitter.
Time: 9:30 am pacific
Here’s the latest from Twitter from earlier this morning.
From Kara Swisher at AllThingsD:
As I wrote earlier this week, here are some highlights of the layoffs today:
1. The number currently remains at 1,500, although
given the current economic environment, several sources at Yahoo expect
the eventual numbers to add up to be more that that, up to 2,000.
2. The layoffs are across the board. But expect
general, human resources and finance to take a bigger hit, since the
expense cuts are cost-based and most of the costs in those divisions
are staff.
3. Employees targeted will be told this morning
with a “normal separation period,” which means they will be out within
a few hours today.
4. Yahoo execs are not expecting any serious
problems, because these layoffs have been long anticipated. But there
will be security present at its Sunnyvale, Ca. HQ and elsewhere.
5. Most employees do not know if they will be let go yet, nor has management in charge of the cuts made that public.
That’s because whole projects might be eliminated and there is the
possibility of whole divisions being moved among big managers.
6. Yang’s successor has not yet been named, although the race is narrowing.
