Anonymous sources broke the news today that Yahoo plans to lay off thousands of employees starting next week. The following week, Yahoo plans to roll out a new restructuring plan for the future of the company.

Reuters reports the layoffs will not take place all at once, but rather gradually over a period of weeks. News was released at the blog AllThingsD, stating there were several anonymous sources claiming the news was indeed true.

The layoffs will reportedly affect primarily the marketing, product and research groups at Yahoo. The goal, according to AllThingsD, is to cut thousands of employees from the close to 14,000 currently working for Yahoo. There are about 2,500 employees in these departments at Yahoo.

Yahoo’s reorganization plan reportedly includes the creation of a global media division consisting of decentralized units. Yahoo’s advertising business and search engine may also be restructured or eliminated in the coming weeks. Scott Thompson, Chief Executive at Yahoo, has already spoken with Google and Microsoft regarding Yahoo’s ad and search engine business, according to AllThingsD.

The layoff and restricting plan would mark the biggest move by Thompson, the former president of PayPal, who took the lead position at Yahoo in January. Thompson, along with consultants from Boston Consulting Group, presented the reorganization plan to yahoo senior executives this past Tuesday.

Yahoo ended 2011 with a decline in revenues due in part to stiff competition by Facebook and Google.

There’s certainly more news to come in the next two weeks regarding Yahoo’s layoffs and reorganization plan.