Operation Toblerone: Yahoo Closing London Offices; Geneva Will Be Euro HQs; 70 Managers Told To Move
By Rafat Ali - Thu 13 Mar 2008 02:35 PM PST
Yahoo (NSDQ: YHOO), which had been threatening its European operations for the last year to shape up or they would be shipped out, has done just that: it is moving its European headquarters from London to Switzerland, with 70 of its top managers in the UK told to relocate or lose their jobs, reports FT. The move, nicknamed Operation Toblerone, was made for corporate tax reasons, the story says citing a source.
Yahoo’s managers in London got an e-mail telling them they had 30 days to decide whether to relocate to the new HQs in Rolle, near Geneva, or lose their jobs. Yahoo employs about 700 people in the UK. This will be an 18-month process, the company says.
London being crazily expensive these days, this move does not come as a surprise. Google (NSDQ: GOOG), which has large commercial operations in London, recently chose to base its European engineering headquarters in Zurich and in 2006 Electronic Arts (NSDQ: ERTS) moved its European headquarters from outside London to Geneva.
AP: Yahoo said 5 percent of its European work force will be involved in the move. A spokeswoman declined to say how many staff Yahoo has in Europe and whether the move will result in job losses elsewhere.
The company has been looking to sell off its comparison shopping site Kelkoo, and has said it could shut down other European operations if the economics of running them don’t improve. Also, I wouldn’t be surprised if Toby Coppel, who was appointed the European head last year, leaves during or after this transition...no inside knowledge, just an informed guess on my part.
Update: Yahoo’s press people later told us (in September) that there’s no project called “Operation Toblerone”, the London office is not closing though Geneva will become the European HQ, and there was no emailed ultimatum to staff.
