China Yahoo, a subsidiary under the nation's largest e-commerce
firm Alibaba.com Corp, is trimming its workforce and sending staff
back to the parent company, sources close to the company said.
"Dozens of people," including mid level managers and directors,
are returning to Alibaba while others are asked to leave with
compensation for their service, they said, asking for
anonymity.
Tao Ran, a spokesman for Hangzhou-based Alibaba, refused to
comment yesterday.
Alibaba took over Yahoo China - which was later changed to China
Yahoo - in 2005 and was paid an additional US$1 billion from Yahoo
Inc, which in return gained a 35-percent stake in Alibaba.
Since the deal, a revamp of the acquired business has been going
on as Jack Ma, founder of Alibaba, is trying to integrate it into
their e-commerce platform, with ideas like launching shopping
search functions. The business was renamed China Yahoo last
year.
China Yahoo had about 800 staff as of September 2006. It was
still recruiting sales and marketing staff in October and November.
The latest figure on its employee number was not known.
(Shanghai Daily January 23, 2008)
