Mumbai — California-based internet major Yahoo’s employee troubles are not yet over. The prolonged unsolicited buyout scuffle and mass exodus of top executive ranks continue and have now touched the Indian arm of Yahoo too.
Unsurprisingly, the interesting thing is that the internet major Yahoo! hopes to double its employee force in India operations to nearly 2,700 by the end of 2008, according to local media Monday.
According to blogs AllthingsD, Techcrunch, and The New York Times, some senior executives, have decided to quit the company. This comes amidst the chaos of Microsoft’s abandoned takeover attempt, lawsuits and a tussle with Carl Icahn, and on the back of hundreds of workers who were laid off starting last year.
“At the beginning of this year, the company had approximately 1,200 employees on its rolls in India, which has now grown close to 2,200 employees.”
During the first six months of this year, Yahoo! India has added over 1,000 employees for its operations and further 500 people might be added to its headcount through the year, Yahoo! India spokesperson told PTI.
“On an average, we are recruiting about 60-80 new employees every month since the beginning of this year and hope to continue the trend till the end of 2008,” Yahoo! India spokesperson said.
However, moving on with this average, the total workforce could be between 2,500-2,700 employees by the end of 2008.
“We are optimistic on Yahoo!’s India operations,” the official said, adding, as the company is “pretty aggressive” when it comes to recruitment in India and the operations are being diversified to reach more number of internet users.
Nevertheless, worldwide the picture appears to be depressing for the search major with many top ranking executives reported to have exited the company.
Sources say that Vish Makhijani, a senior vice president of Indian origin who was leading the key role in Yahoo’s Internet search business has put in his papers. It is discovered that Makhijani has joined as general manager for search business of Yandex, a Russian Internet startup.
Other members of the Search team who have quit include Qi Lu, an executive vice president who headed Yahoo’s search and advertising technology; Brad Garlinghouse, a senior vice president who was heading communications technologies like e-mail and instant messenger.
Additionally, Yahoo has lost four executive vice presidents, Jeff Weiner and Usama Fayyad; and the couple who created Yahoo’s Flickr photo sharing service, Stewart Butterfield and Caterina Fake all quit in the last few of weeks.
Another senior manager Tapan Bhat who was very influential in the new Yahoo India website has also left.
However, when contacted a Yahoo spokesperson said, “We have a deep and talented management team across all areas of the company. Our successful implementation of our core strategies and the timely rollout of key products this year give testimony to the effectiveness of our team, and we continue to recruit outstanding talent.”
“Yahoo goes on to be a leader in our industry even as we experience the attrition that is to be expected in the Internet industry.”
Although some of these recent departures can be associated to the recent deal that Yahoo entered into with Google that involves Yahoo selling advertisements online using Google’s online presence. “With this deal, senior management in Yahoo was unsure about their roles in the company,” said a Yahoo employee who is based out of Sunnyvale California.
Nevertheless, Yahoo India seems ordained to shoulder a great deal of responsibility. Its hiring spree, even as major layoffs are rumored to be lined up elsewhere, is one sign. The appearance of Glue Pages in India is another; it may represent Yahoo’s next approach to presenting search results.
“Well, come what may, a sheer look at the rate at which American employees are quitting, some sort of shift may take place whether Yahoo likes it or not.”