Yahoo Figures Cost of Last Layoff
Back in April, after announcing a bad quarter, Yahoo said that it would trim an additional five percent of its workforce, roughly 700 people, on top of the 1,600 laid off last year. A new SEC filing shows how much the additional layoffs cost the company.
According to a current Form 8-K/A, Yahoo at the time couldn’t estimate the price tag for the additional cut. Now the company pegs the amount at between $30 million and $34 million in severance pay and other expenses. Some of those sent packing will lose stock-based awards that total between $7 million and $8 million, so the net out-of-pocket for Yahoo will be between $22 million and $27 million, to be recorded in the second quarter of 2009.
If you divide the top estimate by 700 people, you get an average of $48,571.43. I do wonder whether the median is far lower, with the bulk of the money going to a few. But that is something we’re likely never to hear.
Erik Sherman is a freelance journalist whose work has appeared in Newsweek, the New York Times Magazine, Technology Review, the Financial Times, Chief Executive, and other publications. Follow him on Twitter.
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