Yahoo Design Innovation Team Axed?

Confirmed: Yahoo Design Innovation Team Axed

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The entire Yahoo Design Innovation Team, a.k.a. yHaus, has been fired en masse, according to the design blog Information Aesthetics.

Citing an anonymous tip, Andrew Vande Moere, an assistant professor of design computing at the University of Sydney, wrote that the entire team, which was working on next generation design projects, is now history.

This week, more than 1,000 Yahoo employees have been let go as the troubled Web portal struggles to cope with operating costs that are rising much faster than revenue is growing.

The link to the site where their work had been displayed, now redirects here, although portions of their blog remain up.

If true, the layoffs would mean the end of a font of design innovation at the beleaguered web giant, which is currently trying to fend off a hostile takeover bid by Microsoft.

A commenter named Ben Long, presumably a Yahoo employee who still has his job, wrote on the Information Aesthetics blog, "I'll miss your shining faces in the office. Best of luck, and I'm certain your talents will land you in extraordinary circumstances in the future."

We've reached out to Yahoo, as well as former yHaus team members, for confirmation, but have not heard back yet. Developing....

by Sam Gustin