It seems as if it’s about time that Yahoo really reconsidered their business model. And by the looks of it they really are. Search is shifting to Bing with more migration to be expected in 2011, but more is happening at Yahoo at the moment.
News is now out that Yahoo, with Christmas being around the corner, is playing Scrooge to a potential part of their staff. Apparently 5% of Yahoo’s current staff will not be having a very good Christmas. After weeks of speculation apparently about 700 people will today hear they will soon be out of a job.
Yahoo has been firing more people over the past few years, but this is again a major blow. Yahoo must be looking at a different direction. Search seems to be out so maybe their focus lies elsewhere?
Yahoo has missed a couple of opportunities in the past few decades. When Google founders Brin and Page turned up on their doorstep offering them their services and the technology which later became Google, they kindly declined. After that in 2006 they forgot to close the deal and acquire Facebook. Yahoo therefore doesn’t seem to be very lucky in their business choices.
The layoffs will come largely from its product division which are all mostly located in the US. Yahoo developer Zach Graves already tweeted out that people were already leaving this weekend. It turns out that the announcement today will mean that the ones who are being let go will have to leave today.
So what’s next for Yahoo?
As Yahoo has missed the opportunities in search and social, are there any other options left for the former search giant? Social probably still is the best way to go, but then not as a social network but as a place where things come together. Being the glue between different social elements might be a way to go. But for now we are left in the dark about Yahoo’s future. Let’s hope the rest of the people working there are not…