Internet and media company
Yahoo is to shed staff with the company laying off 15% of its workforce. The move is part of the company’s efforts to become profitable and means by the close of 2016 the company will lose 9,000 staff. News of the move was announced on the Yahoo.net website in a press release entitled “Yahoo To Improve Profitability and Accelerate Growth By Sharpening Focus”. It comes in the wake of Yahoo reporting a $4.3 billion loss for 2015. The news brought the company’s shares down 1.4%.
"Today, we're announcing a strategic plan that we strongly believe will enable us to accelerate Yahoo's transformation," explained Yahoo’s CEO and former Google executive, Marissa Mayer, who has been with the company since 2012. "This is a strong plan calling for bold shifts in products and in resources. We are extremely proud of the billion dollar plus business we have built in mobile, video, native, and social.” She added “The plan announced today builds from that achievement and will dramatically brighten our future and improve our competitiveness, and attractiveness to users, advertisers, and partners."
Yahoo was established in 1994 and is one of the Internet’s originals. The company claims its web portal, search engine other related services bring in "more than half a billion consumers every month”. In 2008 it turned down a $44.6 billion bid from Microsoft claiming it would not be in its shareholders’ interest. In 2015 the company spun-off its internet business into a separate entity.
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