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It's called a "sandwich". It's the right move to make, emotions aside.

Squeeze from top and bottom, and the middle goes. The middle is where you can make most improvements and cut costs in organizations. That is where most improvement is made fastest FYI.

It's where you start.

Higher and lower levels stay - while the middle layer is squeezed and improved first. Sometimes that means layoffs.



If they were tech support, which is what it sounds like from the post, then they would be at the bottom of the org chart, not in the middle. Not that that excuses your stupid sandwich analogy, which is fucking stupid.


Do you think it has anything to do with flickr being a "mature" product, with very little new risky development going on? When a product doesn't change much from month-to-month or year-to-year, perhaps senior support staff are no longer needed? Just a thought.


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I guess the use of "improved" might have caused downvotes.

The only thing improved is the short term balance sheet.

(I know nothing about the specific situation, but if only one of the support people at my work would have to go it would be devastating.)


I think you got downvoted because, while it may be a standard move, it's a very, very foolish one.


Sometimes, you need to cut off an arm to save a body.

And how do you or I know it is foolish or not? This is one persons opinion. Do you have their financials to look through? Do you really know why pink slips were given? How do you know Yahoo! isn't preparing Flickr for sale and trying to clean up balance sheet?

I don't.

A huge culture loss absolutely, I agree.


> Sometimes, you need to cut off an arm to save a body.

Why not sell the arm (more like tentacle)? Flickr has a huge fanbase and great street cred, if it's not sustainable to keep it, why not sell it?

The only answer I can think of is that the tough decisions are not being made.... what's being decided is how to keep the cash flow going until the inevitable external acquisition, mining brand value.

I've lived in this kind of corporate mentality. Expect Yahoo to be sold soon - just wonder who's buying.


I agree. They absolutely should sell Flickr. Yahoo needs cash, Flickr doesn't fit within what Yahoo is (wherever that may be).

With all that free cash, along with the Alibaba deal, they can really make some stuff happen.


no, flickr is exactly in Y!'s core business: content driving O&O pageviews. Better yet, users often pay flickr to push this content!




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