Yahoo announced it is pulling out of China and will shut down its only operations in the country – an R&D facility in Beijing, which employs about 300 staff.

The layoff represents about 2 per cent of its global workforce of about 12,500.

The closure is part of the company’s broader cost-cutting efforts that have seen it lay off up to 900 people since October. Yahoo reportedly cut 400 Indian jobs in October.

Yahoo has been pushed by activist investor Starboard Value to trim costs by as much as $500 million a year, as well as make larger stock buybacks and merge with AOL.

The company’s total Asia-Pacific revenue dropped 7 per cent year-on-year in Q4 to $180 million, according to SeekingAlpha. In late 2012 it pulled out of South Korea, where it had about 250 staff.