Yahoo closing last China operation in Beijing

BEIJING — Yahoo Inc. has announced the closure of its last office in China, a research and development center in Beijing, in a new cost-cutting move.

Yahoo said it told employees Wednesday about the closure. It gave no details of how many people would lose their jobs but said they would be “treated with respect and fairness.”

The California-based company has cut staff elsewhere as it struggles to keep up with the Internet market’s transition to smartphones and tablets instead of traditional computers.

Yahoo turned over control of its China operations to its partner Alibaba Group in 2005 as part of a corporate tie-up. Yahoo stopped offering services in China in 2013.

Yahoo’s profit for the quarter ending in December fell 52 percent from a year earlier while revenue dipped 1 percent.