By Barry Eitel
SAN FRANCISCO
Shares of Yahoo were up Friday after the company announced it was yielding to investor pressure and shutting down key applications, including its maps website.
The spike in stock indicated Wall Street welcomed the restructuring, a move many important shareholders have called for in recent months.
Yahoo Maps, the most famous of the to-be-shuttered services, will be shut down at the end of June after eight years of existence. The company is also getting rid of Yahoo Mail support on Apple iPhones and iPads running on iOS 4 or earlier beginning June 15. Yahoo Pipes, a service popular with Web developers that aggregates online content, will close in September.
The company is also closing down media properties around the world. Yahoo Music will be closed in France and Canada and Yahoo Movies will be shut down in Spain. Yahoo is shutting down its homepage in the Philippines, which will redirect to Yahoo Singapore. The company is also killing Yahoo TV in the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Canada as well as Yahoo Autos in the UK, France, Germany, Spain and Italy. By the first few weeks of next month, Yahoo Entertainment will be closed in Singapore.
“At Yahoo, we continue to focus on our key product pillars: search, communications and digital content,” according to a blog post by Amotz Maimon, Yahoo’s chief architect. “Part of that focus includes taking a hard look at our existing products and services, and ensuring our resources are spent smartly and with a clear purpose. Ultimately, we want to provide you with the best products, platforms and experiences possible.”
After a string of acquisitions under current CEO Marissa Mayer, including social media site Tumblr, it appears the company is now pushing for a big contraction.
Investors, including Starboard Value LP, have charged Mayer with finding efficiencies, including layoffs.
