Money Minute: No ‘whoopee’ for Yahoo [video]
The economy may be recovering, employers may be starting to hire again, but this probably isn’t the best time to send your resume to Yahoo.
The once-mighty Internet company says it’s laying off 2,000 employees, or about 14% of its workers, as the new chief exec, Scott Thompson, attempts a sweeping reinvention of the search giant.
Yahoo figures the cuts will save about $375 million annually. This is the company’s sixth mass firing in the past four years under three different chief executives.
Obviously Yahoo’s troubles aren’t shared by all tech companies, but this latest round of corporate beheadings suggests that workers shouldn’t get too cozy in the Internet era. The half-life of careers seems shorter than ever.
Put another way, market dominance and customer loyalty are fleeting things nowadays, making a company’s longevity precarious at best.
Remember CompuServe? It once defined the Internet. Then it was AOL’s turn. Then Yahoo. Then Microsoft.
Now it’s Google. And Facebook. And Twitter.
Next? Well, who knows. The only certainty is that there is indeed some other company waiting in the wings that will eclipse the current pack of market leaders.
And that will only mean more workers being handed their hats.
