By Sam Boughedda
Yahoo intends to lay off over 20% of its total workforce, Axios said executives told them on Thursday.
The lay-offs are part of a significant restructuring of the company's ad tech unit, the report by Axios states, with the cuts impacting over 50% or more than 1,600 of Yahoo's ad tech employees.
Around 1,000 positions will be eliminated today, the report states, representing 12% of the total planned cuts. The remaining 8% or more will reportedly occur in the second half of this year.
Axios reports that in an interview, Yahoo's CEO Jim Lanzone emphasized that the lay-offs are not due to financial challenges but strategic shifts to its Yahoo for Business advertising unit, which is not profitable.
Lanzone is said to have added that he can't provide the exact number of future cuts but confirmed that the total number of lay-offs would be over 50% of the ad tech unit's current staff, representing more than 20% of Yahoo's existing staff.
In addition, the article reveals that Yahoo will close a part of its advertising business called its supply-side platform, while it will also shut down its native advertising platform, called Gemini, and leverage its new partnership with Taboola.