14 DAY TRIAL // The mobile web is quickly becoming less of a niche, like just a few years ago, and a very important and potentially lucrative market. Plenty of companies are interested in the space, Google is betting heavily on the mobile web, and Yahoo seems to be doing the same. The company, which has been undergoing a big restructuring for a year now, is now disbanding its dedicated Mobile Group and placing most of the employees in its various other individual units.
The move was confirmed by Yahoo today but has been in the works for several months. “We are infusing mobile throughout the organization, rather than having a specific team for mobile… The importance of mobile in Yahoo has increased and we are re-aligning the organization to do just that,” Cory Pforzheimer, Yahoo’s senior manager of corporate communications, told PaidContent.
He also said that the company would keep some small, dedicated teams to handle partnerships with the mobile carriers, but otherwise everyone else was moving to their respective departments. “[M]obile is top of mind for everyone, and it’s part of regional teams, business teams, product teams,” he also added.
As Yahoo is underlying, the move is not an indicator of a decreased interest in the mobile space, quite the contrary. The company is focusing quite clearly on the mobile web, as mobile versions of its services become an integral part of its offerings. Having everyone involved working together makes sense. Still, the financial benefits and the lowered overhead must have played a role in the decision as well.
Yahoo has been closing down under-performing services and streamlining the company ever since Carol Bartz took the reigns with the aim to focus on its core assets, the Yahoo homepage, Yahoo Mail, and others. The company has also been outsourcing the components that it doesn't deem crucial, or that it's just not very good at.