Yahoo to lay off five per cent workforce

Internet portal Yahoo said Tuesday that it planned to cut five percent of its workforce as the company struggles with the economic downturn and the dominance of Google in internet search.

Yahoo announced the job cuts as it reported quarterly income of $118 million, down 78 percent from a year ago but still above analysts' expectations. Sales for the Silicon Valley company fell 13 percent to $1.6 billion.

The company said the job cuts will affect between 600 and 700 workers, about the same number that were axed last year in an earlier bid to shore up profits.

The latest job cuts were the first to be ordered by chief executive Carol Bartz, who replaced company co-founder Jerry Yang in January after he had been widely condemned for botching negotiations to sell Yahoo to Microsoft.

Bartz has since met with Microsoft chief Steve Ballmer to talk about an alliance that would combine the companies' search divisions to battle Google.