Blighty Yahoo! workers could see jobs go overseas in 2011

UK-based Yahoo! workers face a tough 2011, with the company undergoing a consultation process about job cuts in the products wing of the flailing web portal’s business.

The Register understands that 77 jobs in the UK are up for the chop as part of the 600 worldwide employee cull Yahoo! announced yesterday.

However, Yahoo! has declined to flesh out the details, despite sources familiar with the situation telling El Reg that the firm’s Pulse/Social Directory, Groups, and Answers engineering departments look set to be shifted out of the UK to overseas sites, including to the firm’s offices in Bangalore, India.

A Yahoo! spokesman told us that the Carol Bartz-run company was undergoing a consultation process with UK staff that are affected by the job cuts.

“We’re not going into detail and apart from the headline figure [600 job cuts] we’re not commenting,” he said.

He would not be drawn on whether Yahoo! would axe more jobs in the new year, but reiterated Bartz’s memo to staff yesterday, saying that much of the current cuts would help “strip out duplication” and “align the organisation against its product strategy to continue growth”.

“The reductions are aimed to help that process, to free up resources and invest in growth areas, including new hires,” he said.

Indeed, Bartz said yesterday that the company would be taking on new staff in 2011, which won’t be comforting for those 600 employees that have lost their jobs.

The Yahoo! spokesman told us that the consultation process will be completed by the end of February.

One anonymous source told The Reg that Yahoo! announced internally to its Blighty-based staff that jobs were at risk on the same day they sent out invites to the company’s Christmas party in London. ®