Yahoo shutting down for the holidays
12/23/2009 01:58:00 PM
kenmouse
, Posted in
Most Yahoo employees will be off next week due to mandatory office closings--though they've had since April to figure out what to do.The Wall Street Journal reported on Monday that Yahoo is shutting down everything except for certain "essential functions" during the week between Friday, December 25, and Friday, January 1.
A Yahoo representative confirmed the Journal report Tuesday--however, according to the representative, Yahoo employees were informed of this plan in April, a detail lacking from several reports about the shutdown, although Reuters had pointed it out at the time.
Yahoo has certainly looked to cut costs this year, its first with CEO Carol Bartz and CFO Tim Morse. Layoffs, a search-outsourcing deal with Microsoft, and a reassessment of business priorities were high on the company's to-do list in 2009.
The shutdown, which requires employees to take unpaid leave or vacation days, would be the first ever in Yahoo's history, though other tech companies, notably Hewlett-Packard and Adobe Systems, also shut down for the holidays.
Yahoo will have customer support people working over the break, and it obviously plans to keep its Web site up and running, the representative said. Outside the United States, employees will either have paid time off or unpaid time, depending on local laws.
I'm not sure why this is news. Except for business customers who would already know about this shut down, it has no affect on the internet public.