AOL FORCED TO CUT 700 JOBS
The media-and-technology layoff train made a stop at AOL yesterday, picking up 700 passengers from Time Warner’s perpetually realigning Internet unit.
In an internal memo obtained by The Post, AOL boss Randy Falco blamed both the economy and a need to reallocate resources around the company’s three core businesses for the headcount reduction.
Under Falco’s direction, AOL has split into three units: Platform A, an advertising business that has suffered amid the downturn; People Networks, a social networking unit centered around Bebo that has had middling success; and MediaGlow, a collection of 20 Web sites that is growing users, page views and engagement.
AOL has essentially cast aside its dial-up-access business, feeding off the cash flow until a sale can be completed.
“A successful turnaround plan requires us to realign our cost structure against this three-pronged business model, making difficult decisions to cut costs in areas that aren’t critical to our growth,” Falco wrote in the memo. “We’re at a pivotal point in AOL’s transformation, and need to be even more strategically focused and operationally efficient as we weather the economic storm.”
