Yahoo Plans Meeting to Discuss Future After Mass Layoffs

Yahoo [YHOO  15.065    -0.205  (-1.34%)   ] is planning to hold an all-hands meeting with staff on Tuesday to discuss a company reorganization, according to a source familiar with the matter.

This came after Yahoo announced it let go 2,000 employees on Wednesday, a move that company CEO Scott Thompson said would save the company about $375 million.

Thompson is expected to outline his long-term strategy and vision for the struggling Internet company at the meeting.

"Our goal is to get back to our core purpose — putting our users and advertisers first – and we are moving aggressively to achieve that goal,” Thompson stated in a press release.

The company, once a dominant Internet media and search powerhouse that has seen its growth eclipsed by rivals, is making an effort to be a "smaller, nimbler, more profitable" in order to compete with companies like Google [GOOG  632.32    -2.83  (-0.45%)   ]and Facebook.

The reorganization meeting on Tuesday is likely to focus around the three main businesses that Thompson cited in a memo to staffers on Wednesday: "core media and communications," "platforms" and "data."

Thompson told staffers in a company-wide memo that he and other Yahoo managers would provide information about "comprehensive plans" for Yahoo's future during next week's meeting.

"The immediate next step for all of us is to get clear on our goals, and then take action and move," he said in the memo. 

One key question involves how the product and technology group, headed by Blake Irving, fits into the three new pillars of the company.

According to the source, Irving has been out of the office on vacation this week, with the future of his team and his role uncertain.

Wednesday's layoffs slashed 14 percent of Yahoo's headcount and cut across all of Yahoo's organizations, including marketing, research and product groups.

The fate of several Yahoo businesses remains uncertain, particularly the search business, according to the source, who wished to remain anonymous because the comments involved company matters. While Yahoo struck a deal with Microsoft Corp in 2009 to outsource much of its search operations, Yahoo still employs roughly 1,800 staffers for search, the executive said.

Yahoo declined to comment.

Reference: http://bit.ly/I85UU2