Yahoo to close office in China

Yahoo said yesterday it will close its office in China, a move that was expected to eliminate up to 300 jobs.

Yahoo employees based in the Beijing office were informed of the closure yesterday, according to a spokeswoman. Yahoo did not offer any local products in China, and its office, which was also Yahoo's only physical presence in mainland China served as a research and development centre.

"We are constantly making changes to realign resources and to foster better collaboration and innovation across our business," Yahoo said in a statement.

"We will be consolidating certain functions into fewer offices, including to our headquarters in Sunnyvale, Calif."

The closure comes amid mounting pressure from investors to cut expenses.

The investors include activist investor Starboard, which had strongly suggested that Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer cut at least $500 million in expenses. The company had cut around 600 jobs over the past six months, mostly at operations in Canada and India (See: Yahoo cuts jobs in Bangalore as it downsizes operations).

The layoffs come as the latest in a series of cost-cutting measures by chief executive Marissa Mayer (Yahoo confirms 2,000 job cuts as part of restructuring).

Yahoo had had troubles with authorities in China, a country where US tech companies had faced government censorship and competition from local rivals. Yahoo settled a lawsuit in 2007 with the families of two Chinese dissidents who were jailed after the internet giant provided information to authorities about their online activities.

Mayer was an executive at Google Inc in 2010 when the search giant withdrew from China following a confrontation with local authorities over censorship (China blocks access as Google exits to HK).