Yahoo announces closure of Beijing Research and Development center, laying off 200 to 300 people

Yahoo said yesterday it would close its global research and Development Center in Beijing and lay off 200 to 300 people, according to sources quoted by the Wall Street Journal. Yahoo's office in Beijing is the company's only physical location in mainland China.

Yahoo says it has notified all employees on Wednesday. Since last October, Yahoo has laid off 700 to 900 people, mostly outside the United States.

Yahoo spokesman Carolyn Clark, in an email to the San Jose Mercury, said Yahoo would be fair and impartial in arranging the affected employees to help them through.

Yahoo's global Research and Development Center, set up in 2009, has more than 350 employees, is the company's sole responsibility for the operation of the research and development agencies, Yahoo Beijing Global Research and Development Center has two core business: one is mobile, Yahoo Global Mobile back-end support and some key product development, For example, Flickr's iOS and Android apps are entirely north-graduate, and the other is cloud computing. At the same time, Yahoo personalized platform for the most core research and development work, personalized recommendations in the entire index and recommendation, are in the Beijing Research and Development Center completed.

The Canadian and Indian divisions have also been affected by the Marissa Mayer, Yahoo CEO Melissa Meyers, to cut costs. Future Yahoo headquarters in Silicon Valley might also lay off staff. "Sannivere Sunnyvale and Monica (Santa Monica) will lay off more than two figures, most of them designers and computer engineers," said one Yahoo employee. ”

According to another article in the San Jose Mercury News, the closure of Yahoo Beijing's global Research and Development center is closely linked to the game between Yahoo CEO Melissa Meyers and shareholders. Starboard Value, a hedge fund that buys a lot of Yahoo stock, has been pushing Yahoo's management to meet its demands after gaining recognition from Yahoo's big shareholders.

At an investor conference in January, Yahoo announced that the company was split into one, stripping Alibaba of its shares from Yahoo, and that the spin-off package was proposed by Starboard value, the biggest appeal of the activist investor. Second, Starboard value requires Yahoo to cut its operating costs by 2.5 to 500 million dollars.

In recent years, Yahoo CEO has become frequent, since 2012, has continued in its 66 countries and regions in the low-key layoffs. In the four years from 2008 to 2012, Yahoo's layoffs reached 6000. As early as 2013, Yahoo China said it would no longer provide information and community services, the original team will focus on the spread of the Alibaba Group's public welfare undertakings. The same year China Yahoo Mailbox also officially stopped service.

The following is the full text of Yahoo Beijing Global Research and Development Center announcement:

Yahoo has been committed to seeking development by integrating resources, promoting collaboration and innovation. Today, we officially announced that Yahoo Beijing Global Research and Development Center (hereinafter referred to as "Yahoo North Research") is about to close. So far, Yahoo North has been a global research and development Center in the identity of Yahoo to develop platform-level products. We will consolidate our business and merge with other teams including Yahoo's headquarters. We will be fair and impartial in arranging the affected staff to help them through this period.

Yahoo Beijing Global Research and Development Center

March 18, 2015