Yahoo firing 1,500 workers; 3Q profit falls 64 pct
Posted: Tue Oct 21, 2008 4:51 pm
Driven by the falling market and investor dissatisfaction over the failed Microsoft buyout, Yahoo will fire at least 1,500 employees after their stock plumits 64% in 3Q.
Yahoo NewsSAN FRANCISCO - Mired in a deep slump, Yahoo Inc. will fire at least 1,500 workers to cope with a crumbling economy that dented its third-quarter profit and turned up the heat on the Internet company's management as investors stew over a missed opportunity to sell to Microsoft Corp. for $47.5 billion.
The purge outlined Tuesday represents a 10 percent reduction in Yahoo's payroll of about 15,000 employees. It's the second time in nine months that Yahoo has resorted to mass layoffs in what so far has been an ineffectual effort to rebound from a financial funk that has left its stock price near a 5 1/2-year low.
Things got worse in the third quarter as Yahoo earned $54.3 million, or 4 cents per share. That was a plunge of 64 percent from $151.3 million, or 11 cents per share, at the same time last year.