Job losses looming at Yahoo as profits fall

THE impact of impending job cuts at Yahoo upon workers at its Dublin European base remained unclear last night as the company did little to contradict speculation that hundreds if not thousands of jobs are to be lost worldwide.

Experts have been predicting for several weeks that large-scale redundancies are on the cards at Yahoo in light of its slow revenue growth and the popularity of rival social networking websites.

It has reported seven straight quarters of declining profits, losing internet-search users to Google and facing competition from MySpace and Facebook.

According to Bloomberg, the company fell 44 cents to $20.78 on January 18 in Nasdaq Stock Market trading. The stock has fallen 11% this year.

Initial speculation in the US was that between 1,500 and 2,500 of the 14,000 workforce might be lost.

That prediction has now been revised to approximately 700 according to the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

Details of the losses are expected to emerge on January 29 when the company is due to announce its fourth quarter results.

All it has said on the record is that it will “eliminate some areas of the business”.

In February 2005, Yahoo vowed to create 400 jobs over five years at its new European headquarters in Dublin. The company already had 200 employees at the East Point Business Park.

Last night Yahoo’s European press office was unavailable for comment on the likely impact of job losses on its operations on this side of the Atlantic.