Search engine provider Yahoo! has announced it is to cut 1,000 jobs in its biggest cull of staff since the dotcom crash.Explaining the move, chief executive of the company Jerry Yang stated that Yahoo! was facing "headwinds" that could last throughout the year.
The planned reduction in personnel was revealed on the same day as Yahoo! reported a fall in profits of 23 per cent during the most recent financial quarter, compared to the same period last year.
Yahoo! also announced it is set to make "profound changes" to the way it operates after being hit by fierce competition and falling advertising revenue as companies rein in their spending in the current economic uncertainty.
Job losses had been expected, with reports in the US earlier this month suggesting the firm may get rid of as many as 2,500 workers, the Times reports.
Despite warning that growth over 2008 would be slow, however, Mr Yang stated that he was optimistic about the future of the firm.
In an address to analysts, he commented: "We are not tinkering around the edges. We are making significant and what we believe are game-changing investments in Yahoo!'s future."
As a result of the announcements, Yahoo!'s stock fell by ten per cent in after-hours trading, closing at $20.81.
Recently, Jeffrey Lindsay, an analyst at US financial management firm Sanford C Bernstein & Co, stated that Yahoo! is "at ... risk of irrelevance" because it is no longer generating the resources it needs to "stay in the game", Bloomberg reported.
