Yahoo lays off staff in Singapore
A man walks into Yahoo headquarters in Sunnyvale, California. AP file photo
SINGAPORE — The mood was sombre at Yahoo’s office in Singapore after some employees were laid off on Thursday (Feb 18), amid a wider turnaround plan by the once-dominant Internet giant to cut costs and revamp the business, sources with knowledge of the matter told TODAY.
The job cuts were broad-based, and “some senior folks were affected”, a source said, requesting anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. “Some of the key departments were more severely affected than others,” the source said.
TODAY understands that Mr Marc Lourdes, Editor-in-Chief of Yahoo Singapore, is among those that have left.
In response to queries from TODAY, a Yahoo spokesperson in Singapore confirmed that some employees had been laid off, but declined to elaborate on how many jobs had been cut.
“In early February, Yahoo shared a plan for the future, (and) with this new plan came some very difficult decisions and changes to our business. As a result of these changes some jobs have been eliminated and those employees were notified today. We thank those employees for their outstanding service to Yahoo and will treat these employees with the respect and fairness they deserve,” the spokesperson said.
The writing on the wall had been in the offing for some time for Yahoo, which has faced immense competition from the likes of Google and Facebook for advertiser dollars. Yahoo earlier this month reported a net loss of US$4.35 billion (S$6.12 billion) for 2015, mainly because of a large write-down to account for the lower value of some units. That compared with net income of US$7.52 billion in 2014.
At its earnings briefing, chief executive Marissa Mayer unveiled the company’s latest turnaround plan, including cutting 15 per cent of its workforce and closing offices in five locations.
“As you can imagine, with any layoff, the mood in the office is rather sombre. There’s a sense of uncertainty about jobs,” a source said. “While people in the office were not entirely surprised, especially after Marissa announced the 15 per cent job cuts … Some of the individuals that were laid off were very good performers. But the edict was issued from the top, so Singapore had to meet the ratio.”
The Yahoo spokesperson assured on Thursday that operations in Singapore will continue, “and it remains an important market for Yahoo”.
On severance packages, Yahoo declined to disclose specifics, but said that “those eligible for their annual bonus will remain eligible to receive bonus”.
The news of the job cuts in Singapore also came as Yahoo said on Wednesday it was gutting several digital magazines, namely Yahoo Food, Yahoo Health, Yahoo Parenting, Yahoo Makers, Yahoo Travel, Yahoo Autos and Yahoo Real Estate. Virtually none of the titles were profitable, the New York Times reported a person with knowledge of their finances as saying.
“On our recent earnings call, Yahoo outlined out a plan to simplify our business and focus our effort on our four most successful content areas — News, Sports, Finance and Lifestyle. To that end, today we will begin phasing out the following digital magazines,” said Ms Martha Nelson, Yahoo’s global editor-in-chief. The topics covered by the affected digital magazines will still be available across Yahoo’s network, she added.
