Yahoo Layoffs

So the once powerful master of search is going into cost-cutting mode due to pressure on its share price. Estimates look to be around 3000 from various departments within the company. You should expect to see a crappy search engine become more crappy over the long-term as these cost-cuts are most likely designed for a short-term boost in company stock. The ultimate goal of course is so a few of the larger owners can sell at a net gain and run off with the cash.

Cnet sees it like this:

Yahoo is expected to announce cost-cutting moves this week as part of cost-cutting moves, including another round of layoffs, according to a report Sunday in the Wall Street Journal.

The exact number of layoffs is unknown, but job cuts are expected to come from all departments in the 14,300-employee company, according to the report. Yahoo, which announces its third-quarter earnings on Tuesday, has reportedly asked managers to identify areas where the company can achieve operating budget reductions of 15 percent. In February, Yahoo laid off an estimated 1,100 employees in a bid to cut costs and trim operations that weren't performing as well as others.

Rumors of layoffs at Yahoo have been circulating for weeks, with Alley Insider's Henry Blodget calling for the elimination of 3,000 jobs at the company.

However, Yahoo's stock has been under tremendous pressure lately, closing at $12.90 on Friday. Just a week before that, the Internet giant's stock traded as low as $11.37, its lowest price since March 2003. Yahoo, as a result, also now has a market cap of $17.88 billion. Last May, Microsoft walked away from its buyout offer of $47.5 billion to snap up all of Yahoo, only later to return with a partial buyout offer of $9 billion to acquire just the company's search assets.

Yahoo's stock price got a goose on Thursday after Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer noted Yahoo's declining stock price in saying that a takeover of the Internet search pioneer still made sense, putting even more pressure on Yahoo executives.

Although Yahoo's shares continue to give up ground, the company's stock performance during recent trading sessions has largely mirrored the broader markets. Indeed, many tech companies have resorted to layoffs recently to stem their financial losses.

More about this will come to light soon. Of course any improvement in share price might sour a Microsoft takeover, which could send the stock into a tailspin.