Yahoo is cutting 1,000 jobs or roughly 12% of its employees.
Grand scheme of things
This is the first round of cuts in a larger plan to restructure its advertising tech division amid a wave of layoffs in the industry.
The company plans to shrink its workforce at its Yahoo for Business ad tech unit by nearly half by the end of this year.
In other words, this is equal to over 20% of the company’s headcount.
CEO explains cuts
CEO Jim Lanzone said, “These changes announced today are entirely within the context of creating a better business plan for that division going forward.”
He continued, “The company has taken many bites of the apple here in trying to make it work over the years, but as a standalone company we had to take a very honest view in how we apply our resources.”
Going forward
Digital advertising providers have had to struggle due to hesitant customers who are concerned about the uncertain economic climate.
Yahoo’s restructuring will create a new division called Yahoo Advertising, which will focus ad sales teams on the company’s properties, including Yahoo Finance, Yahoo News and Yahoo Sports.
Profits untouched, those laid off to be considered for other roles
However, Lanzone went on record to assure that the company is “very profitable” and that the job cuts had more to do with the division’s restructuring than troubles in the ad market.
“We would’ve made these changes even at the peak of the market,” he said.
Not just that, the company is “still hiring aggressively,” and those affected by the job cuts will be considered for other roles within the company.
