By Kanishka Singh
(Reuters) - Legg Mason Inc (NYSE:LM) said on Thursday that the mutual fund company is cutting 120 jobs, or about 12% of its corporate workforce, with the step coming only days after the appointment of Trian Fund Management LP's Nelson Peltz and Ed Garden as directors.
Most of the job cuts will be coming from shared services like human resources or finance, a Legg Mason spokeswoman told Reuters.
The job cuts were reported earlier by Bloomberg.
On Monday, Legg Mason had raised the size of its board to 12 members with the appointments of Peltz and Garden.
It had been reported that Trian might push for changes at Legg Mason to boost returns.
Trian will identify a third independent director to be nominated at Legg Mason's annual meeting of shareholders.
Legg Mason has been targeted by Trian for the second time in a decade. Peltz first set his sights on the Baltimore-based company 10 years ago and ended up being offered a seat on the board, which he held until late 2014.
As have other mutual fund firms, Legg Mason has been hit hard by investors' shifting tastes for less expensive index funds offered by larger firms, including Vanguard Group.