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.

sweeping：彻底的；广泛的

shake up：摇匀；重组；震动

internet portal：网络门户

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.

rekindle：重新点燃

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.

 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.

outsourcing：外包；外购；外部采办

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”.

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.

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.

best in class：一流的；同类之最；领先的

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.

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.

bring sth into line：纳入

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