AOL cuts 100 jobs with more redundancies set to be announced

Earlier this year AOL cut 700 staff prior to the arrival of Armstrong from Google who is seeking to reinvent AOL as a digital content company.

The job cuts this year are the latest in a long line of pink-slip (P45) losses that stretch back over a decade. The cuts have claimed almost 15,000 jobs at AOL as its historical dial-up internet access business fades.

Armstrong joined AOL with a mission to transform the loss making firm, which last week reported global revenues down 23% in the third quarter to $777m.

He is reported to have told staff that after today's cuts he is weighing the possibility of asking for further voluntary redundancies. It is a call that could come ahead of a planned spin-off from parent company Time Warner later this year.

The job cuts this year have reduced AOL's head count to around 6,900, which is still seen as too high for a company losing so much money.

It has been suggested that Armstrong will seek as many as 1,000 additional cuts, which would be announced as part of his restructure plan. Armstrong wants AOL to compete directly with Yahoo!, Microsoft and Google for display advertising as AOL pushes into content both in terms of text and video.

AOL has been steadily expanding its network of blogs that comprises more than 70 including the likes of PoliticsDaily, Boombox (hip-hop music), WalletPop (personal finance) and Paw Nation (pets).

This article was first published on brandrepublic.com