Yahoo to close Beijing research centre as company seeks to downsize

US internet giant Yahoo will close its research and development centre in Beijing as the firm seeks to consolidate some jobs into fewer offices.

The Sunnyvale, California-based company told its 350 employees, mostly engineers and scientists, on Wednesday that the centre will shut down. Lay-offs would begin at the end of this month, a person familiar with the matter said.

A Yahoo spokesperson said in a statement: “We are constantly making changes to align resources, and to foster better collaboration and innovation across our business. Today we informed our employees based in Beijing that we will be closing our office there.”

"We currently do not offer local product experiences in Beijing but the office has served as a research and development center."

“We will be consolidating certain functions into fewer offices, including to our headquarters in Sunnyvale, California, US. Our impacted employees will be treated with respect and fairness through this transition,” the statement read.

The centre, one of Yahoo’s three global R&D centres, was opened in 2009 to find ways to expand the Sunnyvale-based firm globally and also to study search, advertising, cloud computing, among other personalised tools.