Yahoo has been under its new CEO Scott Thompson for just a few months but today Thompson and the leadership of the troubled Internet company made some big cuts in Yahoo"s workforce as a precursor for more changes. In a press release today, Yahoo confirmed earlier Internet rumors that it will lay off about 2,000 workers.
The amount of employees affected by these cuts represent about 14 percent of Yahoo"s 14,000 total workers. Yahoo says that the layoffs will save the company about $375 million a year. However, it added that Yahoo will also take a one-time cash charge of between $125 million to $145 million in order to cover the severance packages for the laid off workers.
Yahoo added that going forward, it plans to focus its business on "a select group of core businesses". More information about Yahoo"s new direction will be revealed on April 17th when the company also announces its latest quarterly financial results.
There are rumors that Yahoo is looking to make some changes in its partnership with Microsoft, specifically in its search deal where Microsoft"s Bing technology is used to power Yahoo"s search engine. Yahoo is also going after Facebook with claims that the company has violated a number of its patents.