The Biz of Coding

Yahoo! Pinkslips for 1000+ Employees Confirmed

by Ujwal Tickoo on February 12th, 2008

At a time when Yahoo! is under the threat of a hostile takeover from Microsoft, the company has gone ahead and laid-off around 1100 employees. Elinor Mills in her C|Net blog has got the actual confirmation about Yahoo! layoffs, the news about which appeared around Jan 21, 2008.

Going ahead with the layoffs means that the company still believes it has a chance to get over the threat of Microsoft's hostile takeover. Layoffs take away major chunks of management attention. During a time in which management could be working to avert Microsoft's possible attempt to overturn the Y! board — this action sure is surprising. As NYT had reported:

Microsoft has already intimated that it could seek to oust Yahoo’s board at its next election; it would have until March 13 to nominate a new slate of directors. Unlike other corporations, Yahoo has no protections to prevent an overthrow of its board.

Microsoft stated this plainly in its Press Release yesterday after Yahoo!'s board said "No" to the takeover price of $31:

As we have said previously, Microsoft reserves the right to pursue all necessary steps to ensure that Yahoo!'s shareholders are provided with the opportunity to realize the value inherent in our proposal.

POSTED IN: Yahoo