Yahoo may lay off hundreds

Yahoo Inc. plans to lay off hundreds of employees in business areas not central to its new priorities as it faces rising competitive pressures, a person familiar with the matter said Monday.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based company, which has seen its share of online advertising decline despite its sites being among the Internet’s most visited, is still deciding where to cut.

Yahoo has experienced dramatic turnover in its executive ranks and might hire workers to pursue key areas of focus, so it probably will maintain the same number of workers – about 14,000 – as it had at the end of 2007, the person said.

Co-founder and Chief Executive Jerry Yang, who was appointed to replace former CEO Terry Semel last summer amid growing investor unhappiness, has been spearheading an effort to lure more advertising and eyeballs and to prop up its slumping stock price.

Yahoo is expected to detail the cutbacks about the time it releases fourth-quarter results Jan. 29.

The company said in a statement, “Yahoo has embarked on a multiyear transformation that includes making tough decisions about the business to help the company grow.”

The cuts were first reported this weekend in blogs that speculated Yahoo might trim 10% to 20% of its workforce.

jessica.guynn@latimes.com