SUNNYVALE, CALIF. (AP) - Yahoo Inc. is laying off 100 to 150 workers in the latest sign of the pressures facing the Internet company as it begins the fifth year of a financial funk.
The job cuts made Tuesday represent about 1 percent of Yahoo’s work force of roughly 13,500 employees.
It marks the second round of payroll trimming in two months. Yahoo jettisoned 600 workers just before Christmas.
Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, Calif., provided few details about the latest layoffs except they affected office around the world. The company said it still planned to hire people in key areas that it didn’t identify in a statement.
The reasons for Yahoo’s cutbacks may become clearer when the company releases its fourth-quarter quarter earnings after the stock market closes Tuesday.
Most analysts expect the results to show meager revenue growth at a time other Internet companies such as Google Inc. and Facebook are thriving.
Google, which reigns as the Internet’s biggest moneymaker, is doing so well that it intends to hire more than 6,200 employees this year, increasing its work force by at least 25 percent. It will be the biggest hiring spree in Google’s 12-year history.
Yahoo’s malaise has intensified the pressure on CEO Carol Bartz to lower expenses in an effort to boost earnings and lift the company’s stock price, which dipped slightly last year while most of the market climbed.
Yahoo shares fell 20 cents to $15.89 in afternoon trading.
Bartz’s cost-cutting strategy has provided the desired lift to Yahoo’s bottom line even as revenue growth has consistently disappointed investors. Analysts expect Yahoo’s fourth-quarter earnings to more than double.
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