Yahoo has unveiled the most sweeping job cuts in its 18-year history, marking the first move by Scott Thompson, its new chief executive, to shake up the US internet portal company. Some 2,000 workers, or 14 per cent of the total, will lose their jobs in the latest and most drastic restructuring that has so far failed to rekindle growth under a succession of chief executives The job losses announced on Wednesday follow an intense two-month review in which Mr Thompson made clear he was planning to pare back large parts of Yahoo's operations, though he has also emphasised a return to growth as the company's only chance of remaining among the leading internet companies. After adjusting for the outsourcing of its search business to Microsoft in late 2010, Yahoo's revenues are barely changed from their level of 2006, a period which has seen rapid growth at Google and, more recently, Facebook. Mr Thompson said that the job losses were part of what was needed to make Yahoo "smaller, nimbler, more profitable and better equipped to innovate as fast as our customers and our industry require." His comments also indicated the restructuring would lead to a more streamlined organisation and that Yahoo would cut its range of services to concentrate on those with the best potential for growth. In an email to all Yahoo employees, Mr Thompson described the services the company would focus its efforts on as "core media and communications," indicating it would only provide those where it believed it could be "best in class." Carol Bartz, who was sacked as chief executive last year, had already narrowed the range of Yahoo services, closing or shedding several. The deep cost-cutting is needed to bring Yahoo more into line with other internet companies, said Scott Kessler, an analyst at S&P Capital IQ. The amount of revenue and net income it generates per employee is only half the average produced by other internet companies. The number of recent reorganisations at Yahoo, including two rounds of job cuts by Ms Bartz, made it "hard for employees to keep up with" and could intensify the management challenges for the company's new chief executive, Mr Kessler added. Yahoo predicted the job losses would produce annual savings of $375m, though they would also lead to a pre-tax cash charge of $125-$145m in its second-quarter results to reflect employee severance costs. Yahoo said it would give more details about the reorganisation when it reports the results on April 17.