Yahoo to lay off 20% of staff by year end, beginning this week

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Yahoo will lay off more than 20% of its workforce by the end of 2023, eliminating 1,000 positions this week alone, the company said in a statement Thursday.

Private equity firm Apollo Global Management acquired 90% of Yahoo from Verizon in September 2021. The company had about 10,000 employees at that time, according to PitchBook data.

Axios reported that more than 1,600 workers would lose their jobs in the latest cuts, suggesting the company’s current head count is closer to 8,000 employees.

The layoffs are part of a broader effort by the company to streamline operations in Yahoo’s advertising unit. The Yahoo for Business segment’s strategy had “struggled to live up to our high standards across the entire stack,” according to a Yahoo spokesperson.

“Given the new focus of the new Yahoo Advertising group, we will reduce the workforce of the former Yahoo for Business division by nearly 50% by the end of 2023,” a Yahoo spokesperson told CNBC.

Yahoo said the company would shift efforts to its 30-year partnership with Taboola, a digital advertising company, to satisfy ad services.

“These decisions are never easy, but we believe these changes will simplify and strengthen our advertising business for the long run, while enabling Yahoo to deliver better value to our customers and partners,” the Yahoo spokesperson said.

A Yahoo spokesperson told CNBC that the company would provide severance packages to domestic employees who had lost their jobs. Yahoo didn’t provide specific details on the size or value of the severance packages.