Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer on Feb. 17 began the ugly task of carrying out her grim orders from the board of directors and vocal investors: to trim back the Internet pioneer’s operations—including the full-time employee head count by 15 percent—in the view of declining revenue.
As a result, about 1,700 of the company’s 11,000 full-time employees eventually will lose their jobs over the next several months at the 22-year-old Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Web services provider. Revenue has been declining slowly for several years, although the company remains in the black.
Mayer said during Yahoo’s earnings call Feb. 2 that the company also will close an unspecified number of business units and company projects to control costs. In an earlier move, Yahoo shut down its video portal on Jan. 3.
Re/Code and several other media outlets reported Feb. 17 that the company is currently cutting back, consolidating and reorganizing its digital magazine franchise. Since Mayer’s move from Google to the CEO job in 2012, Yahoo had invested substantial capital and effort into attracting top editors and writers for online publications focusing on travel, real estate, parenting, apparel, beauty, food and technology, among others.
Yahoo Food is closing, Eater.com reported. The relatively new magazine, which debuted two years ago, published both original and syndicated content and sometimes included stories from Eater.com itself.
Politico reported that Yahoo Tech’s top editor, Dan Tynan, has left the company and that the tech vertical was being incorporated into its larger news unit. Politico said that Yahoo’s marquee tech reviewer, David Pogue, formerly of The New York Times, will stay in his job.
There was no word on how the layoffs would affect Yahoo Sports, which has contracts with Comcast Sports Network to provide analysis and perspectives from its sports reporters and columnists.