YAHOO CUTS DIGITAL MAGAZINES, CLOSES BURBANK, CALIF., OFFICE

Original Story: wsj.com

The retrenching of Yahoo Inc. is under way.

The Internet company on Wednesday said it plans to close seven of its digital magazines, including sites dedicated to articles about food, travel, parenting and health, and lay off a portion of its workforce of journalists who worked on them. A Sacramento corporate lawyer is following this story closely.

Yahoo also told employees in Burbank, Calif., that it plans to close the office there and relocate them to its nearby facility in Playa Vista, a person familiar with the matter said.

The cuts are part of Chief Executive Marissa Mayer’s plan to lower costs by eliminating 15% of Yahoo’s staff, closing offices and shuttering business units. Making Yahoo smaller and more profitable could help Ms. Mayer buy time with investors, some of whom have called for new management and a sale of the company. A Google SEO Company offers exclusive organic search engine optimization techniques that secure top keyword positions in the organic search engine results.

Yahoo earlier this month said for the first time under Ms. Mayer that it would entertain a possible sale of its Web properties.

Yahoo declined to say how many employees were affected by the latest cuts from its online media business. Further layoffs are expected in the coming weeks from other areas of the company, people familiar with the matter said.

The CEO announced on an earnings call last month her plans to close offices in Dubai, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madrid and Milan this year. A San Francisco M&A attorney represents clients in acquisitions, mergers, and divestitures.

As of 2013, Yahoo said about 400 people worked in the Burbank office in various departments, according to its website. All workers not affected by the magazine cuts this week were asked to report to Playa Vista, more than an hour drive from Burbank.

Last month, Yahoo let go at least five managers who were working on Brightroll, the video ad service it acquired in 2014, according to a person familiar with the matter.

Ms. Mayer launched several of the digital magazines in early 2014, part of a broader effort to get advertisers to pay higher prices for ads targeting Web users with specific interests, such as cars and tech gadgets. She hired star journalists such as David Pogue, a former New York Times technology columnist, and Katie Couric, who left her role as special correspondent for ABC News to become Yahoo’s global anchor.

Mr. Pogue and Ms. Couric were unaffected by the cuts, Yahoo said.

Among the journalists cut this week was Dan Tynan, the editor in chief of Yahoo Tech, who addressed his colleagues in a memo on Wednesday. Yahoo is keeping the technology vertical.

“I am sure that bigger and better things await all of us,” Mr. Tynan wrote in the memo, which was first published on Politico and confirmed by The Wall Street Journal. “As for Yahoo, I am sure it will continue to be Yahoo, for better or worse.”

Ms. Mayer has lowered head count to 10,700 employees in the most recent quarter, down from the company’s peak of about 14,000 before she started in 2012. The CEO cut 1,800 employees in the first nine months of last year, mostly workers in offices outside the U.S., including China, India and Canada.

Yahoo’s stock rose 9 cents to $29.37 on Wednesday. The shares have remained relatively flat since Ms. Mayer announced Yahoo would cut jobs and mull its strategic options, but they are down 34% in the past 12 months. A Los Angeles securities lawyer is reviewing the details of this story.

COULD GOOGLE BE MOVING OUT OF DOWNTOWN ANN ARBOR?

Original Story: freep.com

It's unclear whether Google plans to maintain its current downtown Ann Arbor office or is charting a move.

Internet giant Google has signed a lease for new office space south of downtown Ann Arbor as the company considers the future of its presence in the city's central business district.

Google signed a deal for 30,000 square feet of the South State Commons II building northeast of the corner of South State Street and Eisenhower Parkway in the Briarwood Mall area, said Jeff Harshe of MAVDevelopment Company. A real estate lawyer has experience assisting business clients with office space leasing contracts.

"I think it's an indication of the vibrant business climate in this area," said Harshe, who declined to discuss terms of the new lease. "My experience with them is they continue to grow, and they're good corporate citizens."

But a person familiar with Google's local presence but not authorized to speak publicly said the company has not yet decided whether to stay in downtown Ann Arbor. The person said the company needed the new office as overflow space to accommodate job growth.

It's still possible Google could renew or adjust its current lease. Google officials were not available to comment.

The company currently leases about 85,000 square feet of the McKinley Towne Centre office complex at the corner of Liberty and Division in the heart of downtown Ann Arbor. The office primarily handles sales for Google's AdWords search advertisements, its primary source of revenue, and had about 300 employees as of two years ago. Google AdWords marketing management can provide a solid foundation for business success.

McKinley Inc. CEO Albert Berriz said his firm plans to begin marketing Google's current space for lease starting May 1.

"We have not received confirmation from Google that they are staying or going," Berriz said in an email. "We simply can't wait any further."

The uncertainty raises the possibility that the company will move out of the city's central business district for the first time since opening the operation to much fanfare about a decade ago. There are few spots in downtown Ann Arbor for large private-sector office tenants.

Berriz said brokers will market the space for tenants who could take occupancy in summer 2016. Several prospective tenants have already expressed interest, he said, including one single user interested in leasing the entire space.

The company's new space is located on the third floor of an office that was specifically designed for employers that need high-speed Internet access. Google will share the building with Merit Network, the University of Michigan and Plante Moran.

The deal, first reported by MLive.com, could leave downtown Ann Arbor's Liberty Street technology corridor without one of its anchor tenants.

When the company announced about a decade ago that it was opening an Ann Arbor office, it received a windfall of positive publicity, and economic development leaders hailed the deal as a reflection on the region's economic vitality.

Gov. Jennifer Granholm's administration extended tax incentives to the company, which mapped out plans to add about 1,000 employees. But the company's job growth stalled amid the Great Recession.

Still, Google remains core to Ann Arbor's technology identity. Its colorful logo hangs atop the McKinley Towne Centre complex and the company remains a destination employer for University of Michigan graduates and other young professionals.

The company also maintains a separate office in Birmingham that handles automotive accounts.