AOL plans to let go 700 employees

AOL has sent out a companywide e-mail to announce plans to lay off approximately 10 percent of its workforce. The job cuts will continue through March and are part of the company’s recession survival plan. Along with the job cuts, none of the current AOL employees will be receiving merit raises over the course of the year.

Besides layoffs, AOL will consolidate a number of its major departments into a single unit. During this period, the company will spend funds focusing on its three major businesses: Platform-A advertising, People Networks social networking, and MediaGlow content.

AOL has shown poor earnings over the past year, the main cause from poor ad revenue. Time Warner, the parent company of AOL, were said to have discussions with Yahoo last year in an effort to sell the branch. AOL CEO Randy Falco expressed sympathy in his email to staffers and promised to help out those affected by the cut with severance packages and other services.

Read [CNET]