AOL is restructuring yet again … which really means that people will be getting sacked. AOL will get rid of positions that aren’t needed anymore, but may create new ones. Sources say this won’t be on a huge scale (apparently, they aren’t the ones getting fired).
AOL, which was synonymous with at-home internet in the 90s, is now the owner of Huffington Post, Tech Crunch and End Gadget. According to the Chicago Tribune, jobs might not be the only casualties, but actual websites might get shut down, and the money saved will be channeled to aspects of the business that are performing better.
A leaner, meaner AOL may be a ripe takeover target for Verizon, which needs to beef up its offerings since it is in a vicious price war with its competitors. Verizon would be interested potentially in AOL’s ad technology and video products, as reported by Bloomberg. There are rumors that Yahoo might team up with AOL, or at least that is what activist investor Starboard Value, which has a share in Yahoo, would like to see. Tech Crunch reported that its parent company wants to focus on its advertising technology and less on the actual running of websites.
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In 2011, there was a restructuring, with many of AOL’s sites combined into HuffingtonPost, which is still hugely popular, with a 21% rise in the number of visitors.
Hopefully CEO Tim Armstrong will dismiss employees more discreetly than he did in 2013, when he fired an employee during a conference call with more than 1, 000 in attendance.
