Yahoo! Shuffles Its Enterprise Software Biz

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Swiftly, silently, Yahoo! has shuttered most of its Enterprise Software offerings; replacing them with Instant Messaging products.

The Sunnyvale, Calif.-based Internet media company Monday confirmed it has realigned assets and staff relating to its My Yahoo! Enterprise Edition and Yahoo! Portal Solutions divisions. The changes also impact the remaining parts of Yahoo!’s Broadcast Solutions webcast services that the company said were not already in the process of winding down.

Yahoo! spokesperson Joanna Stevens told internetnews.com that the company will continue to support existing customers but will not renew contracts that expire, nor seek any new contracts. The company said the realignment has been taking place over the last few weeks and impacts an unspecified number of employees in Sunnyvale, Dallas and Atlanta.

“Yahoo! has always done a constant review of its offerings to find out which areas we see growth patterns,” Stevens said. “The businesses we are discontinuing are no longer in line with our core Yahoo! business and did not have long-term viability.”

For example, Yahoo!’s $5.7 billion stock acquisition of Broadcast.com back in 1999 was supposed to let people conduct meetings online. The company however never got the product tweaked the right way and Yahoo! reported losses between $6 million and $7 million in revenue last April.

Stevens reaffirmed Yahoo!’s core business includes things like search, access, ads, products, and communications.

The company said some existing some content and portals will still be available through Yahoo! Alliances and the company’s key agreements

The broad changes are being made to make way for Yahoo! Business Messenger — the company’s corporate IM product. The latest version of the platform brings in new audio, video conferencing, and voice capabilities thanks to a partnership with WebEX Communications.

So far Yahoo! is already optimistic about the adoption rate of Business Messenger 2.0. The company’s latest pick up customers include BEA, BMC Software, Stanford University, Snap-on Tools and HSBC.

Instant Messaging in general has instantly become a market on fire. With nearly 65 million workers already using instant messaging, and that number expected to grow to 350 million by 2005, according to analyst firm IDC. The technology has become so widespread that it’s even attracted the attention of federal communications authorities and Wall Street regulators.

The price of Yahoo! stock rose 2 percent to $44.57 in recent trading. Earlier in the session, the stock struck a fresh high of $44.77, exceeding its intraday high of $44.55, set last Thursday.