Ad sales people could be on the chopping block at Yahoo Inc., where the rumor mill is churning hard today with speculation that the company will go ahead and cut 20% of the workforce in its consumer products group.
The Wall Street Journal reports that the company's chief products officer, Blake Irving, has asked unit heads to plan ahead, taking into account workforce cuts of about 20%. The group oversees properties like the company's home page, finance site and e-mail, which could mean that if the cuts go through, the ax is likely to fall hardest on ad salespeople.
The company has been struggling with ad sales. Search ad sales fell 7% in the third-quarter, while total revenue rose 1.6%.
The company cut 700 staffers last year, and around 1,4000 employees at the end of 2008.
All this, while other major tech companies are on hiring sprees. Facebook added 700 workers since last year, and Zynga added 800.
Currently, Yahoo employs about 14,100 people.