The slump in the on-line advertising market has affected the first quarter financial results of leading portal Yahoo! which yesterday reported total revenues of just over $180 million for the three months to 31st March, down from almost $231 million for the same period last year. The company said it will reduce its workforce of 3,510 by around 420.

Yahoo!, is still without a permanent CEO following the March announcement that Tim Koogle would step down to the role of Chairman. It is one of the last of the big internet companies to announce its first layoffs. The company forecasts full year results somewhere between breaking even and making a profit of $50 million.

Despite the decrease in revenues, Yahoo!’s sites are increasing in popularity and continue to hold the top position in traffic rankings. Total unique users reached 192 million during March, up from 145 million in March 2000. The company's traffic increased to more than 1.1 billion page views per day on average during last month, up more than 22% on page views during December 2000.

More detail on the Yahoo! results.

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