Just a day after AOL’s parent company, Time Warner, announced AOL was
shifting its focus from subscription-based revenue to advertising supported
broadband services, AOL said it plans to cut 26 percent of its workforce
over the next six months.
CEO Jon Miller alerted employees of the pending cuts during a company-wide meeting today, AOL spokesperson Trisha Wallace told internetnews.com.
Most of the job cuts are expected to be in AOL’s dial-up customer support
and services.
As of June 30, AOL counted 17.7 million U.S. subscribers, a decline
of 976,000 from the prior quarter and 3.1 million from the year-ago
quarter.
As a result, AOL revenues declined 2 percent ($51 million) to $2
billion because of an 11 percent decrease ($188 million) in
subscription revenues.
The subscription revenue still generated $1.5 billion during this
year’s first quarter, but Time Warner President and COO Jeff Bewkes
promised that cutting the slowing ISP business would mean $1 billion
in savings by 2007.
Already this year, AOL closed customer support in Florida, Arizona and Utah, cutting 1,300 jobs.
AOL is also reportedly actively shopping its UK ISP unit.
Time Warner fell 11 cents to $16.56 a share in midday
afternoon trading.
