Yahoo! Inc. to Cut 12 Percent of Its Work Force.

First the stock price tumbled and advertising revenue sank. Then managers started bailing out. Now in yet another sign that former dot-com darling Yahoo! Inc. has come crashing to earth, the Internet portal is cutting 12 percent of its work force.

That translates to about 420 of its 3,510 employees, most of whom will be laid off in the next month. The layoffs, the first in Yahoo's seven-year history, were announced Wednesday as the company said first-quarter earnings beat Wall Street's sharply reduced expectations.

With Yahoo seeing its first year-to-year decline in quarterly revenue, the company is streamlining to focus on``essential services,'' centralizing operations and reducing marketing, chief executive and chairman Tim Koogle said Wednesday.

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