Yahoo workers "leaving in droves"

 

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By Matthew Sparkes

Posted on 28 Mar 2008 at 11:44

Employees are leaving Yahoo "in droves" because they are worried about the potential Microsoft buyout, according to a Silicon Valley headhunter.

"Yahoo is in trouble right now and people are leaving in droves," says Boris Epstein, founder of BINC, a company that specialises in headhunting technical workers in Silicon Valley.

Many employees don't agree with a potential merger between Microsoft and Yahoo and "don't want any part of it," he claims. Other employees are concerned because Microsoft is "anti-open source" and a potential merger could cause problems with the way that Yahoo uses open technology, he claims.

Even without the looming prospect of a deal with Microsoft, Epstein imagines that many workers would still be leaving because Yahoo is lagging behind its competitors.

"Yahoo's product is two years behind the competition in terms of technical and product innovation. There are companies literally down the street from Yahoo that are leading in innovation in areas like groups, mobile, community - but for some reason, Yahoo can't get its resources together to lead any sort of innovation in these areas," he says.

Despite these problems, there are still people eager to work at the search company. "It's like somebody jumping on board Titanic mid sink," claims Epstein.

Yahoo was unavailable for comment at the time of writing.