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Yahoo! is moving its European headquarters from London toSwitzerland and is telling senior staff to pack their bags or leave thecompany.
Yahoo! is moving to Rolle, near Geneva, Switzerland, the Financial Times reports.
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The main reason is to reduce its corporate tax bill. Yahoo!'soperational and product managers got an email yesterday telling them ofthe move. The company has not yet decided how many staff will move, but50 senior staff will go by the end of the year. Yahoo! has some 700staff in the UK.
The 18 month process, dubbed "Operation Yodel", may of course get overtaken by events if the Microsoft takeover is successful.
A spokeswoman for Yahoo! told the Register: "We have begun aprogramme to relocate to Switzerland which will take 18 months. We arenot confirming numbers yet but are committed to keeping a presence inLondon too."
Meanwhile, in the US there were the first signs of a thaw inrelations with Microsoft as the two companies reportedly hadpreliminary discussions about the merger. Yahoo! was previouslyrefusing to discuss what it considered an unwelcome takeover bid. Thetalks were mostly Microsoft staff laying out future plans for thecombined company, according to the Wall Street Journal.
Talks are made more significant because Yahoo! reports its quarterlyearnings on 22 April and any failure to hit targets is likely to hitits share price and, therefore, make the takeover bid more tempting forshareholders. Microsoft offered $44.6bn for the company or $31 pershare.
Other would-be Yahoo! suitors like Time Warner and News Corporationhave made clear in recent days their lack of interest in the company.Rupert Murdoch said he was not interested in getting into a bidding warwith Microsoft and is anyway busy integrating Dow Jones. TimeWarneryesterday bought Bebo.