Yahoo to begin major layoffs next week as part of restructuring: AllThingsD

AllThingsD is reporting that Yahoo will begin significant layoffs next week that could number in the thousands, and that the company will officially announce a rumored restructuring. The report says that new Yahoo CEO Scott Thompson has convened top management to outline the restructuring plans, and AllThingsD says that the new Yahoo could be a much smaller organization with a focus on media and advertising — with next week’s layoffs targeted at the product, research, and marketing groups. We’ve already known that the company has been in pain for some time: Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang resigned in January, and was shortly followed by a four member board exodus in February that included chairman Roy Bostock.

The restructuring won’t be the first radical action taken by Thompson, who recently decided to threaten Facebook with legal action for allegedly violating social networking and advertising patents. The new structure of the company is still a mystery, but AllThingsD reports that the company may take a phased approach to cutting business units, and may even sell off its search group. At any rate, for “the nice place to stay on the internet,” it looks like some major existential changes are ahead.