San Francisco, Feb 3 (IANS): US tech giant Yahoo announced cutting the workforce by about 15 percent, slashing properties and exploring "strategic alternatives" as part of an aggressive plan to turn around the struggling company.

The announcement on Tuesday came as the company released its fourth-quarter report, which shows a loss of $4.4 billion, Xinhua reported.

Yahoo, based in Sunnyvale, California, said it plans to lay off about 1,500 employees and exit five offices in Dubai, Mexico City, Buenos Aires, Madrid and Milan.

By the end of 2016, the company expects to have approximately 9,000 employees and fewer than 1,000 contractors. It represents a workforce 42 percent smaller than it was in 2012, and save $400 million annually, the company said.

It will also simplify its product portfolio to focus on the products that distinguish the company competitively. For consumer products, the silicon-valley company will have three global platforms -- search business, mail and Tumblr blogging site.

Yahoo also said it has begun to explore divesting non-strategic assets, such as sales of patents and real estates. The company estimates a gain of $1-3 billion in cash through these efforts.

It expects to generate revenue of over $1.8 billion in 2016 through its Mavens strategy, which includes advertisements through mobile, video, native and social platforms.

"Today, we're announcing a strategic plan that we strongly believe will enable us of accelerating Yahoo's transformation," said Yahoo CEO Marissa Mayer in a statement. "This is a strong plan calling for bold shifts in products and in resources."

This restructuring plan should lead to "a modest and accelerating growth in 2017 and 2018", said the company.

In addition, Yahoo board is "exploring additional strategic alternatives", which it believes is "in the best interest of shareholders".

The 20-year-old internet business is beleaguered with dissatisfaction from investors. They have been calling on the company to put for sale its core web businesses as Mayer failed to grow the company since taking over.