The vote is almost unanimous. Yahoo leaders approved the sale of their company to Verizon for around ?$4 billion. I say that because Verizon’s price for Yahoo dropped by several hundred million. The Verizon/Yahoo Merger almost complete…At a cost.
So what is that cost? That cost is jobs. Because Verizon had to lay off 2,100 more people just to seal this deal. Furthermore, this just adds to the number of jobs Yahoo lost over the last five years. So Yahoo’s work force is 8,600. Sounds like a lot, doesn’t it? Not really. During Marissa Meyer’s reign as Yahoo CEO, they lost almost half their work force. So I guess what’s another 2,100 (I know that sounds bad!)?
But Yahoo may already have something to celebrate. Their stock prices shares went up 10%. But at what cost? Are you aware that the 2,100 layoffs make up for 15% of all Verizon employees? Now that’s a huge piece of their work force. Of course, no company dares says a word of these layoffs. But Yahoo, and Verizon’s other purchase, AOL, are in trouble. Verizon isn’t doing so hot either. Yahoo and Verizon struggle to compute on the same level as Facebook and Google. Also, year after year, Verizon ranks as one of the most hated companies in America.
It’s a real shame. Especially for Yahoo. In the 1990s, Yahoo lead the Internet revolution. For those of you born after 2000, imagine surfing the Internet in the 1990s. Google wasn’t the first search engine site we used. It was Yahoo. Now, Verizon seems to be Yahoo’s only lifeline for survival. It’s amazing how IT support changes over the years, and even the premier companies of yesteryear can eventually flounder. So yes, we can declare the Verizon/Yahoo merger almost complete. But is the cost of jobs worth it? Over the past few years, neither company had that good of a reputation. So will Verizon save Yahoo? Can it? Or will both companies sink? And is this merger worth all these jobs being lost?