Yahoo has unveiled the most sweeping job cuts in its 18-year history, marking the first move by Scott Thompson, its new chief executive, to shake up the struggling US internet portal company.

雅虎(Yahoo)公布了该公司18年历史上最大规模的裁员计划，这也是新任首席执行官斯科特•汤普森(Scott Thompson)为重整这家步履维艰的美国互联网门户企业而迈出的第一步。

Some 2,000 workers, or 14 per cent of the total, will lose their jobs in the latest and most drastic of a number of recent restructurings that have so far failed to rekindle growth under a succession of chief executives.

大约2000人（占员工总数的14%）将在此次裁员中丢掉饭碗。这是雅虎最近数位首席执行官在任期间推出的多次重组方案中，最新、也是力度最大的一次。此前的那些重组方案迄今未能将雅虎重新带回增长轨道。

The job losses announced yesterday follow a two-month review in which Mr Thompson made clear he was planning to pare back large parts of Yahoo’s operations, though he has also emphasised a return to growth as the company’s only chance of remaining among the leading internet companies.

这一裁员计划是于昨日公布的，此前，雅虎进行了为期两个月的评估。汤普森在评估期间曾清楚表示，他计划砍掉雅虎的一大部分业务。不过他也强调，恢复增长是雅虎继续保留在一线互联网企业行列的唯一机会。

After adjusting for the outsourcing of its search business to Microsoft in late 2010, Yahoo’s revenues are barely changed from their level of 2006, a period which has seen rapid growth at Google and, more recently, Facebook.

雅虎2010年底将搜索业务外包给微软(Microsoft)，如果不计算这块业务，雅虎的收入几乎从2006年之后就停止了增长。而这一时期，谷歌(Google)以及最近的Facebook都经历了快速增长。

In a statement, Mr Thompson said that the job losses were part of what was needed to make Yahoo “smaller, nimbler, more profitable and better equipped to innovate as fast as our customers and our industry require”.

汤普森在一份声明中说，此次裁员是“为雅虎瘦身，使其更加敏捷，增强其盈利能力，提高其快速创新能力以适应客户及行业需求”，所必需采取的举措之一。

His comments also indicated the restructuring would lead to a more streamlined organisation and that Yahoo would cut back on its current range of services to concentrate on those with the best potential for growth.

他的言论不仅表明重组后的雅虎将成为一个更加精简而高效的企业，还表明，雅虎将缩小现有服务范围，专注于最具增长潜力的业务。

In an email to Yahoo employees, Mr Thompson described the services the company would focus its efforts on as “core media and communications”, indicating that it would only provide those where it believed it could be “best in class”. Carol Bartz, who was sacked as chief executive last year, had already narrowed the range of Yahoo services.

汤普森在写给雅虎员工的一封电子邮件中指出，该公司将着力于“核心媒体及通讯领域”的服务，称雅虎将只会提供它认为自己能达到“一流水平”的服务。去年遭解职的雅虎前首席执行官卡罗尔•巴茨(Carol Bartz)此前已经缩小了雅虎的服务范围。

Mr Thompson’s comments appeared to confirm reports that Yahoo is planning to disband its large, centralised product development group, handing more control to smaller units to speed up the creation of new services.

此前就有报道说，雅虎正计划解散其人数众多、实行集中管理的产品研发团队，转而赋予更小规模的团队更大的决定权，以加快新产品的推出速度。汤普森的言论似乎证实了这一传闻。

The cost-cutting was needed to bring Yahoo more into line with other internet companies, said Scott Kessler, an analyst at S&P Capital IQ. The amount of revenue and net income it generates per employee is only half the average produced by other internet companies.

S&P Capital IQ的分析师斯科特•凯斯勒(Scott Kessler)表示，雅虎需要这样的成本削减举措来缩小与其他网络公司之间的差距。该公司人均的营业收入及净利润仅为其他网络公司平均水平的一半。