Did Those Yahoo Layoffs Hit Early?

There’s been a lot of speculation around when these Yahoo layoffs will roll out. As we heard a few weeks ago, Yahoo plans to cut as much as 20 percent of its workforce. Other news outlets have reported that it’s around 10 percent — either way, it’s going to be significant (10 percent of the company’s staff would around 600 employees). We heard that layoffs started taking place two weeks ago, particularly in the Yahoo Groups and Flickr product groups. Others have reported that layoffs would actually be starting around December 13th, which is approaching next week. But it looks like Yahoo may have already started to hand out pink slips, according to this Tweet from Yahoo senior software developer Zach Graves.

Graves writes, “The number of people carrying boxes out of Yahoo tonight is not surprising, nor the last of it.”

It’s unclear from his Tweet where these layoffs are taking place, but it’s just one of many reports that seem to confirm this. Of course, this report is anecdotal, but that fact that it is coming from a Yahoo employee (vs. an anonymous tip) does suggest that layoffs may have already started and are gradually being executed at the company.

We’ve contacted Yahoo for comment and will update the post when we receive a statement from the company.

UPDATE: Zach Graves contacted us with a response: “I simply made an observation that a handful of my co-workers had made the decision, on their own, to leave the company. In no way did it imply the Yahoo! had started layoffs.”

And Yahoo issued this comment, “We don’t comment on rumor or speculation.”

Yeah, I guess we’ll continue to hear these “rumors” until Yahoo is ready to actually publicly announce the fact that they are gradually making cuts.