By IANS,
Bangalore : Global search engine and web services provider Yahoo! laid off 45 people from its India operations as part of its worldwide firing policy due to global meltdown, a company spokesman confirmed here Thursday.
“Around three percent (45 people) of our India headcount, which is 1,500, has been asked to go Wednesday as per the directive from our headquarters at Sunnyvale in the US,” a spokesman of Yahoo! India subsidiary told IANS here.
The pink-slips were in line with the company’s guidance given in October for the fourth quarter of 2008, which hinted at terminating the services of about 1,500 employees worldwide during the current quarter.
“We completed the termination process within a day of receiving the notification from our parent company. Majority of those laid off were from Bangalore operations, while the rest are from Mumbai. The layoffs were based on two parameters – performance and business realignment,” the spokesman said, but declined to be named.
Admitting the company had begun to consolidate its business by shutting some non-performing divisions and clubbing other operations into new entities, the spokesman said the realignment was being done in view of the impact the global meltdown had in the space it has been operating over the years.
“Some business activities have been shut and their staff redeployed in strategic operations. We are exploring newer areas to sustain the growth momentum,” the spokesman said.
Interestingly, those who have been sacked were given an attractive severance package and some of them were referred to other firms as part of its outplacement service.
In an e-mail to employees, outgoing chief executive Jerry Yang said though the layoffs were very hard to make, they were unavoidable so as to focus on the long-term health of its business.
“This is a tough time for all of us,” Yang quipped.
This is the second time in the last 12 months when Yahoo! India laid off after a similar exercise led to the exit of 40 people from its research and development and web services divisions in Bangalore and Mumbai.