San Francisco: Yahoo Inc will tell 1,500 employees on Wednesday they are losing their jobs, after announcing in October that layoffs would occur by year's end, a person familiar with the situation said on Tuesday.
The expected date of the announcement and some details were reported this week by All Things Digital, a blog covering Silicon Valley. The layoffs will hit hardest in the labor-intensive areas of human resources and finance.
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The blog had speculated the layoffs would affect more than 1,500 people, or about 10 per cent of Yahoo's workforce, and the source said the number has not changed.
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Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen said in October Yahoo would be prepared to cut jobs and other expenses further in 2009 if the economy continued to deteriorate.
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Yahoo will cut its workforce in high-cost markets and hire aggressively in lower-cost locales such as Eastern Europe, India and Southeast Asia, the company has said.
The highest-profile personnel change has not yet occurred. Chief Executive Jerry Yang said in November he would leave the company, after facing strong criticism for his leadership. That change will take effect when a replacement is named.
