Yahoo! May Be Dumping A Lot More People

If there is any merit to an anonymous tip received by Silicon Alley Insider, about 3,500 Yahoo! employees may be losing their jobs when the company begins it’s next set of layoffs.

Meanwhile, Valleywag hears that they’ve already axed two-thirds of their recruiters. "A sensible move, since it’s not like Yahoo will be hiring that many people," says Nicholas Carlson. "But putting those recruiters out on the street will make it all the easier for rivals to snap them up, and use their knowledge of Yahoo’s talent pool to lure away the company’s best remaining brains."

Though Yahoo! executives have tried to present the company in a very optimistic light lately, with massive layoffs and financial analysts pretty much calling them bad news, the future tends to look a bit more bleak. They’ve got to be hoping that this deal with Google goes through and gives them a bit of fuel in the advertising department. Rumors are going around of a possible AOL acquisition, but I can’t imagine this really being the spark of life to ignite Yahoo!’s future.

AOL itself meanwhile is cutting down its own services, namely AOL Journals and AOL Hometown, according to Ars Technica. "As for the rest of AOL, it’s no secret that it continues to be a revenue drag on its parent company, Time Warner," says Jacqui Cheng. Why would Yahoo! who is suffering financially want to get involved with another "financial drag"?

If Yahoo! is going to cut 20% of its own workforce, what kind of a chance would AOL employees stand in a merger scenario?