New Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson is kicking off his tenure by announcing a plan to lay off fourteen percent of the workforce, amounting to a total of 2,000 job losses. This comes on top of several rounds of layoffs in recent years.
Meanwhile, hedge fund manager and Yahoo shareholder gone rogue Daniel Loeb is stepping up his campaign against Yahoo’s board and management by launching his Value Yahoo website. The goal of the site is to lobby other Yahoo shareholders to back Loeb and his proposed slate of new board members in the looming proxy battle that he’s launched for control of the company. Loeb is overwhelmingly convincing in pressing the argument that Yahoo’s managers have done a poor job over the past five years (the facts more or less speak for themselves) but having purused the site extensively it’s awfully thin on laying out what the alternative vision of the company’s future looks like.
