Yahoo has shut down access to its services in China, becoming the latest American tech company to exit the country.

SoftBank Corp plans to merge internet subsidiary Yahoo Japan with messaging app operator Line Corp to create a $30 billion tech group, as it strives to compete more effectively with local rival Rakuten and U.S. tech powerhouses.

SoftBank's Yahoo Japan, one of Japan's top internet firms, confirmed it is in talks to merge with Line, a $27 billion union that would bring the messaging app operator under the SoftBank umbrella in a major tech shake-up.

Yahoo could pay $117.5 million to settle massive data breaches that compromised personal information, including email addresses and passwords.

In filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission today, Yahoo laid out the severance packages for executives that will be leaving the company as it sheds its Internet business chrysalis and emerges as an Alibaba stock-holding company moth called Altaba. Marissa Mayer, Yahoo's chief executive officer, will receive a package of cash, stock, and benefits valued at a total of $23,011,325 at the completion of the deal, according to Yahoo's proxy statement. Of that, $3 million will be in cash.

The deal includes Yahoo real estate assets, while some intellectual property is to be sold separately.

Yahoo has kicked off an auction for a portfolio of about 3,000 patents expected to fetch more than US$1 billion, according to people familiar with the matter.

Mayer is expected to appear on video with Chief Financial Officer Ken Goldman after Yahoo announces fourth-quarter earnings to unveil a plan aimed at slashing the Internet company's costs, including the closure of several business units and a reduction of up to 15% of its workforce, said people familiar with the matter.

The departure is the latest shakeup at Yahoo, which has come under increasing scrutiny from investors. Savitt was an early appointment by CEO Marissa Mayer and also oversaw Yahoo's push into original content.

Yahoo Inc. is cutting between 100 and 200 employees, mostly in Canada, according to a person familiar with the matter, as Chief Executive Marissa Mayer works to reduce costs at the Internet company.

In a major departure for both Mozilla and Yahoo, Firefox's default search engine is switching from Google to Yahoo in the United States.

"In five to eight years they are going to disappear in the way that Yahoo has disappeared," said Eric Jackson, founder of Ironfire Capital while appearing on CNBC's Squawk on the Street.

The chief executive of computer firm Yahoo has stepped down, amid accusations that a fake computer science degree was included on his CV.

Rumored layoffs at Yahoo could offer a clue as to how the company's new CEO, Scott Thompson, plans to redirect the stumbling Internet giant.

Four longtime Yahoo board members, including the chairman, are leaving the company.

China's Alibaba Group has hired a US lobbying firm, fuelling further speculation that it is preparing a bid for Yahoo.

Shares in the internet portal firm Yahoo have leapt 10% on rumours that Microsoft is considering a second attempt at a takeover.

Are Internet users in the US or Europe ready to entrust all their personal information to an online service controlled from China?

"They've got to sell the company, break it up, do something..."

The database tapped by hackers includes member e-mail addresses and, in some cases, personally identifiable information such as birthdates, homepage URLs and screen names from messaging services such as AIM, Skype and Yahoo.

Texas Instruments has agreed to license two patents from Eolas Technologies, which two years ago sued more than 20 companies for alleged patent infringement including TI, Google, Yahoo, Apple and Amazon.com.