Yahoo has dismissed some 1% of its workforce prior to releasing its fourth quarter financial results later today. This marks the second round of layoffs in six weeks, following a 4% (600+ person) reduction in December. The company hasn't mentioned an exact number of affected employees, but estimates suggest around 140.
"The personnel changes we are making are part of our ongoing strategy to best position Yahoo for revenue growth and margin expansion and to support our strategy to deliver differentiated products and experiences to the marketplace," Yahoo said in a statement. Similar reasons were cited in December's layoffs.
In contrasting news, Google has announced that 2011 will be its largest hiring year yet. The company plans to add more than 6,000 new workers, most which will be stationed at its Mountain View headquarters. The search giant also intends to pick up more than 1,000 new workers in Europe, including Munich, Germany.
Google expanded its personnel by 4,565 last year and it plans to employee more than 30,000 people by 2012. The company reported fourth-quarter revenue of $8.44 billion last week along with announcing that cofounder Larry Page will replace decade-long CEO Eric Schmidt, who will become Google's executive chariman.