About two months ago, we reported that Google was interested in hiring a lot of new European employees.  Now there's word that Yahoo's moving in the opposite direction; some European departments will have to either improve their performance or be sold or shut down.

There may be one more option: justify their less-than-profitable existence.  Still, it looks like corporate belt-tightening will have a tangible effect in the first quarter of 2008, which is the deadline that accompanies this challenge.

"Toby Coppel, the new-ish head Yahoo's European business, has given an ominous warning," reports Rafat Ali.  "Even CEO Jerry Yang said as much in the Q3 earnings call in October: We 'plan to shut down a number of other one-off services throughout the world over the coming months.'"

As with VeriSign's recent announcement about divestments, this development is hardly a declaration of victory.  (In France, Google has an embarrassingly large market share of about 90 percent.)  Still, a newly refocused Yahoo Europe should have a better chance of achieving whatever goals it's given.

Tags: Yahoo, Europe