AOL is cutting about 20% of its workforce worldwide
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AOL is cutting its workforce by about 20% worldwide, according to a company memo sent by CEO Tim Armstrong and obtained by Bloomberg.
According to the memo, more than 900 of AOL’s 5,000 employees are set to lose their jobs as AOL continues to integrate its operations with the Huffington Post and as part of an ongoing restructuring process to turn the company back toward revenue growth, Bloomberg reported.
AOL officials were not available for comment on Thursday morning.
On Monday, AOL closed its $315-million purchase of the Huffington Post, an online news website that both aggregates news from other outlets and produces original content. On news of the purchase being finalized, AOL’s stock closed at $19.26 -- at that point, an all-time low -- before closing at $19.24 on Tuesday and $19.14 on Wednesday.
Armstrong wrote in his company memo that the plan is to trim as many as 200 jobs in the U.S. and 700 in India, Bloomberg reported. But 300 of those who will lose their jobs in India could be moved to new jobs at AOL’s outsourcing partners and continue to do work for the company, the report said.
‘Today, we are announcing an organizational structure that will significantly improve AOL’s ability to focus on growth,’ Armstrong wrote in the memo, according to Bloomberg. ‘Our strategy remains clear: create high-quality content experiences for consumers, at scale.’
AOL, one of the first major Internet portals that helped turn e-mails into ubiquitious form of communications, has reported revenue declines over its last four consecutive quarters, Bloomberg said.
[Updated 12:13 p.m.: AOL spokesman Graham James confirmed that indeed, AOL is planning to lay off 900 of its employees -- 200 in the U.S. and 700 in India.
The majority of the U.S. job cuts will take place in AOL’s New York and Dulles, Va., office.
‘AOL is an editorial driven company, and that’s not changing,’ he said. ‘That’s technically increasing with the addition of the Huffington Post. This workforce reduction is the result of the integration of the two companies; making them fit together.’]
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-- Nathan Olivarez-Giles