Yahoo has not announced further employee cuts this year, but Williams said that the company is open to laying off more workers as economic conditions warrant.
“It’s hard to predict how market conditions might impact the need to make further cuts,” he said. “We’re open to it but there are no specific plans.”
The company could also consolidate its regional campuses or close offices altogether, though there are no plans to close Burbank’s office, he said.
City officials plan to speak with Yahoo soon, hoping to press the company on the importance of maintaining a presence in Burbank. But given the city’s own precarious financial standing, including an up to $7-million deficit projected for next fiscal year, could limit Burbank’s mobility to offer Yahoo any monetary incentives.
“I’m not sure as a city we can stem the tide of layoffs?.?.?.?but we will look at seeing what we can do,” Mayor Dave Golonski said. “Everybody is affected by this. We hope they don’t close the [Burbank] office, and we’ll be in touch with Yahoo and make sure we’re doing everything we can to keep them here.”
Wednesday’s layoffs were done just two days after Yahoo filed federal and state mandated notices, called the Worker Adjustment and Retraining Notification, usually required of companies 30 days before they intend to lay off more than 50 workers at once.
The company filed the notices with the Employment Development Department on Monday, Williams said.
Yahoo may have gotten around filing the 30 day advance notices by offering severance packages to laid off employees, state government officials said.
