Company to cut 20% off staff by year end

Yahoo will lay off more than 20% of its workforce by the end of 2023, eliminating 1,000 positions by the end of this week alone, the company said in a statement Thursday.

Private equity firm Apollo Global Management acquired 90% of Yahoo from Verizon in Sep. 2021. The company had about 10,000 employees at that time, according to PitchBook data.

Axios reported that more than 1,600 individuals would lose their jobs in the latest cuts, suggesting that the company’s present head count was closer to 8,000 employees.

The layoffs are part of a broader effort by the company to streamline operations in Yahoo’s advertising unit. The Yahoo for Business segment’s strategy had “struggled to live up to our high standards across the entire stack,” according to a Yahoo spokesperson.

“Given the new focus of the new Yahoo Advertising group, we will reduce the workforce of the former Yahoo For Business division by nearly 50% by the end of 2023,” a Yahoo spokesperson told CNBC.

Yahoo said that the company would shift efforts to its 30-year partnership with Taboola, a digital advertising company, to satisfy ad services for Yahoo.

“These decisions are never easy, but we believe these changes will simplify and strengthen our advertising business for the long run, while enabling Yahoo to deliver better value to our customers and partners,” the Yahoo spokesperson said.

It was not immediately clear what benefits or severance laid-off employees would get. A Yahoo spokesperson did not immediately respond to follow-up questions sent by CNBC.