Yahoo! declares first round of layoffs, trims 15% workforce

Yahoo! Inc announced on  Wednesday it will lay off 107 employees in the first of what is expected to be more than 1,500 job cuts.

The layoffs take effect April 11 and affected employees received 60-day advance notice of the move, Yahoo! said in a notice filed with the California Employment Development Department. The layoffs were spread across a range of departments and job titles.

Yahoo! shares closed up one per cent at $27.10 on Wednesday and are down about 18.5 per cent so far this year. Yahoo! Chief Executive Officer Marissa Mayer said during the company's fourth quarter earnings call this month it will cut roughly 15 per cent of its workforce as part of a strategy to revamp its core Internet business.

Yahoo! had about 11,000 employees as of June 30, according to its website, down from a December 31, 2014, total of about 12,500 full-time employees and what it called fixed-term contractors.