Yahoo says report of layoffs 'inaccurate'

SAN FRANCISCO - Yahoo Inc. called a media report it was planning to cut one-fifth of its workforce "misleading and inaccurate," but the Web portal stopped short of ruling out layoffs.

Yahoo, which is trying to revive revenue growth amid competition from search giant Google and fast-growing social networking services like Facebook, said in an e-mailed statement Thursday that it is "always evaluating expenses to align with the company's financial goals."

"However, a 20 percent reduction in Yahoo's workforce across the board is misleading and inaccurate," the statement said.

A report Friday on the technology blog TechCrunch, citing two anonymous sources, said that Yahoo was planning to lay off 20 percent of its staff. Yahoo finished the third quarter with 14,100 employees. TechCrunch said it is sticking by its story based on its sources.

It comes days after widespread market and industry speculation that Google is hiking salaries by 10 percent to try and prevent its talent from defecting to hot start-ups and rival companies.

Investors have pressured Yahoo, the leader in display advertising, and chief executive Carol Bartz to deliver growth and revive a moribund stock price. Speculation has surfaced that private equity firms are exploring a buyout of the $20 billion company.

Yahoo is one of the world's most popular online destinations, and still the No. 2 U.S. search engine behind Google. But the Web portal is facing increasing competition from Facebook as well as from Google, and hemorrhaging senior executives to rivals.