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By Iain Thomson
http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2253628/aol-slashes-staff-number-third
19 Nov 2009
AOL has announced that it is looking to trim a third of its workforce, which it says will save the company $300 million.
The company has said that it will make the redundancies voluntary as far as possible but that the cuts will be made no matter what. 2,500 jobs will go from AOL’s current 6,900 headcount, which is down from a peak of nearly 20,000 in 2004.
AOL’s chief executive Tim Armstrong apologised for the cuts and said as a result he would not be taking his annual bonus this year, which was expected to be around $2 million.
"As a member of our team and the person who takes accountability for the results of the company, I am making the decision to forego my 2009 bonus," Armstrong said in an e-mail to AOL employees.
"That decision is a personal one and is not a sign for the future payout of the overall bonus plan for employees."
AOL is currently demerging from Time Warner, a $106bn merger that was made during the height of the internet boom, which is widely regarded as one of the worst mergers in IT history.
In the last quarter AOL reported revenues falling 23 per cent to $777 million. Of this subscriptions fell $138 million while advertising was down $92 million, well above the industry average.
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