AOL to Layoff 10 Percent in 2009
According to a report from Reuters, AOL is planning to lay off 10 percent of its workforce, amounting to 700 employees.
In an internal memo obtained by the news agency, AOL Chief Randy Falco broke the news that the company would this year be laying off 700 people as well as eliminating merit-pay increases. The layoffs in AOL add to the already huge number of cutbacks the tech industry has seen during the first month of 2009.
Reuters reports that Falco blamed the steps cutbacks on the deepening recession. "Online marketers have tightened their ad buying across the board, reducing their spend by hundreds of millions of dollars," Falco said.
Falco detailed that most of the layoffs will be in the United States and finalized by the end of the first quarter with the remainder happening aboard and over several quarters.
Time Warner has reportedly been in talks with both Microsoft and Yahoo! with regards to the possibility of an advertising deal involving AOL and earlier this month, Time Warner CEO, Jeffrey Bewkes, met with Steve Ballmer and Yahoo Chairman, Roy Bostock at Time Warner's New York headquarters.
The company also made headlines earlier in the week when rumors circulated claiming the company was planning to sell recently acquired social networking site, Bebo.
Check out Reuters for more on the layoffs.
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Jane McEntegart is a writer, editor, and marketing communications professional with 17 years of experience in the technology industry. She has written about a wide range of technology topics, including smartphones, tablets, and game consoles. Her articles have been published in Tom's Guide, Tom's Hardware, MobileSyrup, and Edge Up.
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The_Blood_Raven No they offer broadband, or well... limited Verizon DSL with their crappy browser program. My mother loves the damn browser and since she DOES pay most of the bills....Reply -
rta looks like an aol-ite is handin out the eeeeeeeevil -1's to the naysayers.Reply
"You've got minus one!" -
NuclearShadow rtalooks like an aol-ite is handin out the eeeeeeeevil -1's to the naysayers. "You've got minus one!"Reply
lol @ aol-ite
Anyways its not surprising that they are having layoff's. Even if the economy was strong they really aren't needed anymore and always have been sort of a joke. -
gwellin So now they are down to about 6300 employee's. This should probably be around a 2:1 employee to customer ratio. At least customers service probably wont suffer becuase of the layoffs.Reply
I cant believe they are still kicking. Maybe if they didn't send me a CD with their crappy software about 12 times a week, they might have more money to avoid some of these layoffs.