Yahoo may build a data center in western New York, creating jobs for a depressed local
economy.
State officials including U.S. Sen. Charles Schumer have
been in talks with the search-engine giant over building the facility, which
could be as large as 60,000 square feet and employ between 50 and 100 people.
While describing a possible Yahoo data center as "not a done
deal" in a May 10 press conference, Schumer described the chances of terms being
set as "very, very good," according to reports.
Yahoo already plans to build a 150,000-square-foot data center
in Nebraska, at an estimated cost of $100 million. That location will employ
around 50 people.
According to Business First of Buffalo, Schumer had been in
direct talks with Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz over the possibility of opening the
data center in his state. An incentive package apparently being prepared by the
state government includes low-cost hydropower for the electricity-hungry
facility. No timeline for possible construction was announced.
"We are continuously evaluating new ways to best support our business
needs," Yahoo said in a statement to eWEEK. "We are in a dialogue with officials in New York, as we are with other
potential options, but we do not disclose information related to ongoing
discussions."
Even as it considers building data centers, Yahoo has been
looking to streamline its global work force, planning
to cut some 5 percent of its global work force. The search-engine company is
locked in a fierce battle with Google over market share, with Yahoo occupying 20.5 percent of the market in comparison
to Google’s 63.7 percent.
Yahoo
still holds an advantage in e-mail users, some 91.9 million of whom relied
on Yahoo Mail in 2008; by comparison, AOL Mail had 46.6 million unique users, while
Google’s Gmail has 29.6 million users.
Yahoo is still recovering from a 2008 hostile takeover bid by
Microsoft, which drove Yahoo’s stock downward and forced out former CEO Jerry
Yang in favor of Carol Bartz. For her part, Bartz has refused to comment on
rumors that the two companies could still engage in an advertising or search
partnership.
For the first quarter of 2009, Yahoo reported revenues of
$1.58 billion, down 13 percent from the same quarter in 2008.
Editor's Note: This story has been updated with a comment by Yahoo.
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