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Yahoo to lay off 15% of employess (~1,700) and shut down oversea branches.

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M

massoluk

Banned
http://www.wired.com/2016/02/yahoo-plans-to-lay-off-15-percent-of-its-workforce/
Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer today announced a slew of changes at the company in order to prove to investors that it still has a real future as a tech giant. “Today, we’re announcing a strategic plan that we strongly believe will enable us to accelerate Yahoo’s transformation,” Mayer said in a statement. “This is a strong plan calling for bold shifts in products and in resources.”

Ahead of the company’s quarterly earnings call, Yahoo said it’s planning to lay off 15 percent of the company (around 1,700 employees) and close offices in Dubai, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madrid, and Milan.

The company is also moving away from creating original TV shows, is consolidating its digital magazines, will sell valuable real-estate, and is shuttering legacy products like Yahoo Games. It will also reorganize the company in an effort to increase its number of users and the time they spend on Yahoo properties, especially on mobile, by focusing on search, e-mail, and Tumblr, along with four topical verticals, including news, sports, finance, and lifestyle.
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After so many failed initiatives, it has come to this finally.

In related news, Yahoo is one of the big tech companies that are still using dreaded stack ranking and firing. One of the victims is suing.
At Yahoo, the program, known internally as Q.P.R., has been a sore spot among managers and employees since it began. The court filing said that managers were forced to give poor rankings to a certain percentage of their team, regardless of actual performance. Ratings given by front-line managers were arbitrarily changed by higher-level executives who often had no direct knowledge of the employee’s work. And employees were never told their exact rating and had no effective avenue of appeal.

Mr. Anderson said that in his case, he had received high ratings and a promotion before taking a leave of absence in the summer of 2014 to study at the University of Michigan on a Knight-Wallace Fellowship. Although the fellowship leave was approved by two top Yahoo executives, Kathy Savitt and Jackie Reses, who have since left the company, Mr. Anderson said that his boss’s boss, Megan Liberman, called him on Nov. 10 to inform him that he was in the bottom 5 percent of the company’s work force, all of whom were being fired.
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http://www.nytimes.com/2016/02/02/technology/yahoo-employee-ranking-system-lawsuit.html?_r=0

IMO, they can't get rid of Marissa soon enough.

edit: Also goodbye, YAHOO TOWERS! My sweet prince. I was addicted to you in my earlier years. :(
 
F

Futureman

Member
Have they done anything, at all, in the past 10 years that was interesting and successful? I can't believe they still have any presence. How can you drift that long not really providing something that has appeal?
 
N

nephilimdj

Member
Hard Gay invading Yahoo Japan will forever make us remember Yahoo Japan, RIP

OpUjunE.jpg
 
J

juicyfruitas

Member
Oh well, Yahoo! had a good run....

Their mail service has gone to shit, their news articles are 70% click trap pages with 30% content.

Their sports scores app is pretty decent and it's still the go to place for my Fantasy Football leagues but other than that....
 
E

EatinOlives

Member
Mr. Anderson said that in his case, he had received high ratings and a promotion before taking a leave of absence in the summer of 2014 to study at the University of Michigan on a Knight-Wallace Fellowship. Although the fellowship leave was approved by two top Yahoo executives, Kathy Savitt and Jackie Reses, who have since left the company, Mr. Anderson said that his boss’s boss, Megan Liberman, called him on Nov. 10 to inform him that he was in the bottom 5 percent of the company’s work force, all of whom were being fired.
Click to expand...

Holy shit, talk about shooting yourself in the foot. You fire talented and competent people because of a self-imposed rating system that is obtuse as fuck.
 
B

Bubba T

Member
At Yahoo, the program, known internally as Q.P.R., has been a sore spot among managers and employees since it began. The court filing said that managers were forced to give poor rankings to a certain percentage of their team, regardless of actual performance. Ratings given by front-line managers were arbitrarily changed by higher-level executives who often had no direct knowledge of the employee’s work. And employees were never told their exact rating and had no effective avenue of appeal.
Click to expand...

Do you know who had a similar ranking system? Enron.

I'm not saying Yahoo! is going to end up declaring bankruptcy, wiping out millions in retirement funds and causing massive legislative reform on accounting practices, but this kind of bullshit creates a hostile work environment.
 
H

hollomat

Banned
Futureman said:
Have they done anything, at all, in the past 10 years that was interesting and successful? I can't believe they still have any presence. How can you drift that long not really providing something that has appeal?
Click to expand...

They had a big investment in Alibaba that really paid off. Honestly if it wasn't for that they wouldn't be around still.
 
B

BeardyChan

Member
Futureman said:
Have they done anything, at all, in the past 10 years that was interesting and successful?
Click to expand...

They made Bing what it is and then I got fired. So you could say they made something interesting that someone wanted. Microsoft still didn't want any of the talent that made Bing though.
 
S

SURGEdude

Member
Remember when Marissa Mayer was like a sudden celebrity out of nowhere. The media talked about her like she was certain to save Yahoo and make them into Google's worst nightmare.

I never understood the hype. She always seemed pleasant but nothing about her suggested anything special about her leadership qualities.
 
G

gamz

Member
Bubba T said:
Do you know who had a similar ranking system? Enron.

I'm not saying Yahoo! is going to end up declaring bankruptcy, wiping out millions in retirement funds and causing massive legislative reform on accounting practices, but this kind of bullshit creates a hostile work environment.
Click to expand...

So did MS under Balmer.
 
K

kiri

Member
Was offered a job interview with them in London (Yahoo JP) - didn't take it for the above reasons.
 
N

Netherscourge

Banned
Have they come out with a Yahoo Phone yet?

What they need is a reboot as a Yahoo ecosystem and make Yahoo OS and Yahoo Music and YahoooooooooooooooOOOOOoooooo!
 
I

inky

Member
I still have my yahoo mail account I got in elementary school. I'm surprised it's still up every time I log in.
 
B

Bubba T

Member
gamz said:
So did MS under Balmer.
Click to expand...

Ah, yes I remember that. I feel that it was one of the contributors to Microsoft's struggles a few years ago. There was a reason they did away with it. It was terrible in 1999, was terrible in 2013, and it's terrible now.
 
L

LumpOfCole

Member
Yahoo's iOS weather app is nice and has potential, but its ingrained advertisements make it a clunky chore to use. I'd pay up to $2 to take away its ads.
 
K

kiri

Member
massoluk said:
Wow wow, dude Yahoo JP is fine. Hope you didn't mistake them for Yahoo.
Click to expand...

No I didn't, but brand recognition being what it is turned me off - I know Yahoo JP is a separate beast but Yahoo being anywhere on my CV probably won't help in future.

Furthermore, £20-25k in Central London? No thanks.
 
Sakura

Sakura

Member
massoluk said:
Yahoo Japan is a joint venture between Yahoo and Softbank. It is a much more respected company than Yahoo :)
Click to expand...

Was just wondering, because I know Yahoo Japan owns a baseball stadium and stuff, so I figure they are at least somewhat successful.
 
P

Philly40

Member
Gray Matter said:
What does yahoo even do nowadays?
Click to expand...

Yahoo Answers -


"errm, they sort of do stuff, you know?" 43 thumbs up

"I think they own Google?" 133 thumbs up

"I've heard Opus Dei and the Illuminati are rigging the presidential elections, buy gold bullion!!"

"what is a yahoo?" 2 thumbs down
 
J

JonathanEx

Member
Regardless of Mayer's choices, and if they've been good or bad calls (okay mostly the latter), I'm really struggling to think like, if you were asked, what on earth would you do with Yahoo? Like, just what? What's there to work with and grow?
 
H

hwateber

Member
Yahoo Japan auctions is pretty sweet I hear but that's not the same entity. I feel like stack exchange will usurp Yahoo Answers and then the only differentiating product they have is tumblr
 
K

Kinitari

Black Canada Mafia
JonathanEx said:
Regardless of Mayer's choices, and if they've been good or bad calls (okay mostly the latter), I'm really struggling to think like, if you were asked, what on earth would you do with Yahoo? Like, just what? What's there to work with and grow?
Click to expand...

Pivot to a SaaS company? Make something unique and useful, and leverage the brand and talent to make money off of it?
 
T

tearsintherain

Member
Lookin forward to Vice President Mayer in 12 years explaining how firing 90% of yahoo and then shutting down the company was not her fault.

It is crazy how some tech companies just keep going and going though. AOL, MySpace, and Yahoo still around. Alta Vista, Ask Jeeves, and Excite gone :(
 
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