

Yahoo to Let 140 Employees Go - petethomas
http://bits.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/01/25/yahoo-to-let-140-employees-go/

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uptown
When asked for comment, the HR department said they'd initially planned to
make deeper cuts, but they were limited to 140 characters.

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shashashasha
Damn, I came here to make the same joke.

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fletchowns
Yes, people losing their jobs is hilarious.

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fletchowns
This was supposed to be blatant sarcasm for those that missed it and are
voting me down. Layoffs are in no way funny, and it's pretty disrespectful
that people (on HN of all places) are cracking jokes about it.

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thwarted
Dude, are you new to the internet? On the internet, no one knows you're a dog,
and nothing is sacred. Not even Hacker News is immune, being part of the
internet.

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jscore
Yahoo is pretty much done (from an ex-Yahoo)

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jacquesm
Looking in from the outside I'd agree with you, but what's next then? Slow
death? Buy-out? (at a valuation lower than the bid that saw Jerry Yang get
ousted).

They still have some really strong properties (though I imagine flickr to be
feeling the heat of Facebook), a 2 minutes to twelve turn-around can't be
completely ruled out but it's not going to happen under current management.

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jscore
Yahoo is really an impression based media company. The number one goal is to
drive traffic to properties and monetize it via impressions.

Don't get me wrong -- they've build some impressive technology in house and
have/had some bright engineers, but beginning from Filo, Y! was always a media
company. The top management continues to drive it in that direction.

As far as properties, Y! Personals was spun off, I believe, and sold to
match.com, and that was a pretty profitable business. Y! Real Estate now sells
its leads to another company (Trulia?) although when I worked there, they
wanted to do something in house.

As content becomes a commodity day by day (via proliferation of blogs, digg-
like sites, social media), Yahoo will continue to struggle in a bid to find
its relevance.

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nowarninglabel
There are many people here who are very supportive of the Marketing team.
However, the numbers don't agree with this position:
[http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000142405274870332220457522...](http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703322204575226102766133006.html)

I'd like to be convinced that I am viewing the numbers the wrong way or some
other objective data that validates the position that the Marketing Team adds
the most value to the company. Anyone care to take a stab?

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DanLar75
Am I the only one that read this headline like a resolution to a 'hostage
situation'?

Seriously, Yahoo.. what have you done right since 1999?

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siculars
They should have sold to Microsoft when they had the chance.

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lionhearted
> The reduction comes a month after the Web portal let around 600 workers go
> as part of a strategy by Carol A. Bartz, the chief executive, to pare costs
> and reinvigorate a stagnant business. Previous rounds of layoffs took place
> in 2009 and 2008.

Huge mistake - pretty much all the literature on the topic agrees that slow
trickles of layoffs are disastrously bad for morale.

If you have to make cuts, you really want do it once, all at the same time,
and then put it behind you.

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Isofarro
"If you have to make cuts, you really want do it once, all at the same time,
and then put it behind you."

I'm fairly sure that's what Yahoo did at the end of 2008 in their "Get Fit"
exercise. We were told that the cuts would be severe so they would not have to
go through this ever again.

And I think this is now the fourth layoff since that "layoff-to-end-all-
layoffs". I hear rumours that they are already scheduling another round of
layoffs in engineering later this year, somewhere near September/October.

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jacquesm
I hope your job is safe from that round. If not run while you can.

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wildjim
Don't wait.

The usual effect of such misdirected management behaviour is most of the
good/talented/valuable people leave earlier than later, as they smell blood in
the water.

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Kevin_M_Miller
I was surprised they had 140 left.

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zmmmmm
I'm sad for Yahoo.

A lot of people criticize Google for having false starts. Yahoo is the counter
example to that - an example of what happens when a technology company fails
to make bold bets. They seem to have tried to make safe bets on their cash cow
continuing forever and in technology that's just suicide. Even Microsoft is
smart enough not to do that.

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jmathai
From a current Yahoo!, "social" will kill the company. It's such a big
initiative but no one understands what it means. The company is sacrificing
their successful products by trying to make them "social".

Just recently I noticed that the main page in Yahoo! Mail included a Facebook
style update feed. Just one of many examples.

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stopmi
Off topic: Is there a reason why all the words start with a capitalized letter
instead of just the first?

Or is it an accepted convention?

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rimantas
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_case#Headings_and_publica...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_case#Headings_and_publication_titles)

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stopmi
thanks

should have googled that though, sorry

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Charuru
_Her strategy is to focus on Yahoo’s strengths like display advertising and
editorial content_

So... old media?

Feel sorry for yahoo, this is what happens when you have incorrect leadership.

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nowarninglabel
Considering the cuts are coming from the Marketing team (at least according to
the article) I can't feel any sort of sympathy.

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checker22
Right, because people from Marketing don't add any value to a company.

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nowarninglabel
I never said they did not. I said I did not feel any sympathy. Though, I would
argue, if they added so much value, why are they being cut?

Let's argue that point. I say the Marketing effort has been misguided and not
a good return on value. Do you disagree? Or are you saying the blame lies
elsewhere. Would you rest it solely with higher management? I certainly
wouldn't shield them from blame, but I think the Marketing arm deserves some
valid criticism. I point you to this from last year:
[http://searchengineland.com/yahoo-should-put-ad-budget-
into-...](http://searchengineland.com/yahoo-should-put-ad-budget-into-
products-41404)

