Yahoo cuts auction jobs in change

Yahoo Auctions has laid off employees in the United States and Canada as part of a recent business reorganization, a company representative said Friday.

Less than 40 people were laid off, spokeswoman Joanna Stevens said. The layoffs were a result of the company combining Yahoo Auctions, Yahoo Classifieds, Yahoo Warehouse and Yahoo Shopping into a single platform late last year, resulting in redundant positions, she said.

Yahoo Auctions, which once seemed positioned to take on market leader eBay, has remained solidly in the No. 2 position since introducing fees about a year ago.

In the last year, the advertising-dependent company has focused on growing other revenue, such as adding paid services and tapping transactional revenue. Among the initiatives are a new subscription-based online gaming service and fees for features on its GeoCities home page.

Last week, the company reported quarterly earnings that met Wall Street's expectations. For the first quarter of 2002, Yahoo posted a net loss of $53.6 million, or 9 cents a share, on sales of $192.7 million.