Marissa Mayer has already written a kill list for Yahoo’s employees, and now it’s time for the CEO to start killing off the people who’re unfortunate enough to work for one of the company’s less successful divisions. Yahoo has turned down a number of acquisition offers in recent weeks because it believes that restructuring itself will finally put it on the path to its long-awaited turnaround. This restructuring involves putting more focus on successful businesses like Search and Tumblr at the expense of less successful business, which will result in 15% of its workforce being cut by the end of the year.
Yahoo has announced what it calls an “aggressive strategic plan” which will see the company narrow its focus to areas it perceives itself to be strong in. The company hopes this will “fuel growth, drive and increase revenue”, unfortunately for workers at Yahoo, the plan will also see current jobs being cut by 15%. With her new plan, Marissa Mayer – CEO of Yahoo – wants to focus on Search, Mail and Tumblr as well as News, Sports, Finance and Lifestyle in ‘growth markets’ such as the US, Canada, UK, Germany, Hong Kong, and Taiwan. By focusing on these things, the company believes in can innovate in these areas more rapidly, making them more attractive to users. Regarding advertising, the company will ‘be defined’ by its two core offerings: Gemini and BrightRoll. The new plan will see Yahoo’s search business and Tumblr platform, become further oriented towards mobile users. By investing in ‘forward-leaning mobile search’, Yahoo hopes to redefine search on mobile devices, which they say will drive sustainable long-term growth. As for Yahoo Mail, the focus is on improving speed and stability, as well as making it easier for users to share, search and connect through the platform.