Yahoo Inc. on Tuesday announced plans to eliminate roughly 15 percent of its workforce, or about 1,700 jobs, and explore “strategic alternatives” for its struggling Internet business.
The announcement accompanied Yahoo’s fourth-quarter report in which the company reported a loss of $4.4 billion, hurt by write-downs on Tumblr and other assets, as revenue grew 1.6 percent to $1.27 billion.
Yahoo said that by the end of 2016, it anticipates having about 9,000 employees and fewer than 1,000 contractors, which represents a workforce that is roughly 42 percent smaller than it was in 2012. The company sees the cuts resulting in savings of $400 million a year.
In 2010, , an online news site, for a reported $100 million. At the time, there were 50 employees in Denver. Associated Content was renamed in 2014.
Yahoo has an , in Denver. The phone number listed for the Denver office has been disconnected.
“As part of our strategic plan, we have made the difficult but necessary decision to reduce our workforce in order to more efficiently align resources and position the company for a stronger future,” Yahoo said in a statement to The Denver Post.
Yahoo said Tuesday that its planned job cuts include shutting five offices in Dubai, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madrid and Milan.
The company also said it has begun to explore divesting nonstrategic assets, such as patents, the sale of real estate, and other noncore assets. Through the end of the year, the company estimates that these efforts could generate between $1 billion and $3 billion in cash.
Yahoo chairman Maynard Webb said the board of directors believes that exploring additional strategic alternatives “is in the best interest of our shareholders.”
Yahoo’s declaration that it is considering options could open the door to a bidding war among media conglomerates, private-equity firms and wireless carriers.
Denver Post staff writer Tamara Chuang contributed to this report.
