Social media is abuzz with the news about Yahoo firing about 400 of its employees from Yahoo SDC (Software Development Center) in Bangalore, most of whom are part of the engineering team. As a part of its “consolidation” plan, the current lay off is the biggest the Internet giant has planned after the one in 2012 where nearly 2,000 jobs worldwide were slashed.
The company in a statement said, “As we ensure that Yahoo is on a path of sustainable growth, we’re looking at ways to achieve greater efficiency, collaboration and innovation across our business. To this effect, we’re making some changes to the way we operate in Bangalore.”
Don’t just go ogle, apply! “RT @deepigoyal: We’re (always) hiring 
#tech pic.twitter.com/i3ShVO1ZM5”
— Pradyot Ghate (@pradyotghate) October 7, 2014
The current head count of the Bangalore unit is not known but some believe it to be less than 1,500. Once considered to be the biggest R&D department after the Sunnyvale, California, the Bangalore unit is now in tatters. Marrisa Mayer after coming on board from Google two years ago hasn’t been able to turn things around for the company, which was once considered the internet pioneer in the industry. Senior executives have been offered positions at Sunnyvale with severance packages ranging from 6 to 12 months offered to junior employees who’ve started receiving their d-day letters starting from 7 November.
Yahoo techies! Want to work on all sorts of hard problems on products that millions of Indians use? Join us. Email me sg@timesgroup.com
— Satyan Gajwani (@satyangajwani) October 7, 2014
Ad sales, a major revenue generator for the web portal, has taken a major hit where other companies like Google, Facebook and Microsoft have done a much better job. Yahoo’s digital advertisement share has taken a plunge with display revenue recording eight per cent loss at $436 million and the total revenue clocking a four per cent loss at $1.08 billion.
Local start-up companies are jumping on to the chance to hire talented Yahoo engineers and have started doing job pitches on social media networks. Big players like Zomato and Times Internet Group too have jumped onto the bandwagon and announced their hiring programmes for the laid off engineers with positions open across various verticals.
