Yahoo is reportedly planning to kill a handful of services, with its bookmarking site Delicious actively seeking a new home outside the company.
Yahoo is apparently taking the term "buzzkill" to a new level, confirming to
various news outlets its plans to eliminate its Buzz social-news portal.
"We continuously evaluate and prioritize our portfolio of products and
services, and do plan to shut down some products in coming months such as
Yahoo! Buzz, or Traffic APIs, and others," a company spokesperson e-mailed the
Los Angeles Times Dec. 16. "We will communicate specific plans when
appropriate."
Buzz allows people to submit news stories found online and then vote on
their popularity, raising those pieces' profiles in the view of the Buzz
community. It shares some structural similarities with other social-news
aggregators such as Digg and allows users to "buzz up" not only articles from
major news Websites but also videos and blogs.
In addition to eliminating underperforming assets, Yahoo plans to cut 600
employees from the company, a 4 percent workforce reduction. "This was a tough
call, but a necessary one,"
CEO
Carol Bartz wrote in an employee memo. "We need to make these changes now
to ensure that Products is structured and running the way we want as 2011
begins. And that means we need fewer Yahoos in some areas, and different types
of Yahoos in others."
However, Bartz also insisted that the company's fundamentals remained sound
despite the cuts. "You've heard me say before that I didn't come to cut Yahoo
to greatness," she wrote. "That's all true. This decision is more about cost
savings. The changes are meant to get us into a position so we can invest more
in the kind of products and technology we know we need to be successful."
Bartz's
2009 compensation was $47.2 million and topped Standard & Poor's list
of the 10 highest-paid CEOs that year.
According
to AllThingsD, a leaked internal slide shows Yahoo determined to "sunset"
eight products in the near future, including MyBlogLog, Yahoo Picks, AltaVista,
Yahoo Bookmarks, Yahoo Buzz and Delicious. MyBlogLog co-founder Eric
Marcoullier had posted a screenshot of the slide on
his Twitter page and tweeted Dec. 17:
"[Yahoo] says they're trying to sell Delicious. MyBlogLog founders asked to
regain control on three occasions. Still interested."
Bookmarking site Delicious-whose more ardent fans quickly tweeted their
irritation over the drama-seemed determined to survive whatever Yahoo has
planned for it. "Many of you have read the news stories about Delicious that
began appearing yesterday,"
read an
unsigned Dec. 17 posting on the Delicious blog. "While we have determined
that there is not a strategic fit at Yahoo!, we believe there is an ideal home
for Delicious outside of the company where it can be resourced to the level
where it can be competitive."
The posting continued: "We are maintaining Delicious and encourage you to
keep using it. That said, we have export options if you so choose.
Additionally, many services provide the ability to import Delicious links and
tags."
The whole situation, of course, remains fluid.
Email
Print
