Posted on 10/19/2005 2:07:45 PM PDT by Paleo Conservative
America Online is laying off more than 700 employees, primarily in member-services call centers, in response to the ongoing decline in subscribers for its dial-up Internet-access services.
Under the plan, the Time Warner Inc. unit is closing its center in Orlando, Fla., and is cutting positions in centers in Jacksonville, Fla., and Tucson, Ariz., and at AOL's corporate headquarters in Dulles, Va.
The cuts amount to about 4 percent of AOL's 20,000 global work force. The company hasn't announced layoffs of this magnitude since December 2004.
AOL said the job cuts were driven by declining subscriber numbers, and were not engineered to attract potential strategic investors.
A number of suitors are interested in taking a stake in AOL's growing, advertising-supported online content business, including Microsoft Corp., Yahoo Corp., and a team-up of Google Inc. and Comcast Corp.
These players aren't interested in AOL's access business, which is large and highly profitable but declining as consumers shift to faster broadband access services. As of June 30, AOL had 20.8 million U.S. members, down 917,000 from the March quarter and 2.6 million from a year earlier. In Europe, AOL had 6.2 million members, down 99,000 from the previous quarter and 80,000 from a year earlier.
"We're at a point in time where it makes sense to realign our access business," said AOL spokesman Nicholas J. Graham. "A lot has changed regarding our membership and access business and we're managing that transformation."
Time Warner shares slipped 10 cents to $17.63 in afternoon trading Wednesday on the New York Stock Exchange.
I didn't know they had that many employees cause when I had aol I kept getting the same indian man who couldn't understand me and insisted on reading me his instruction manual every time I called.
AOL is a POS.
10-4
Talking to a dead connection will take less time than talking to "Paul".
AOHell is teetering, and that's A Very Good Thing.
". . . we don't have one anymore."
That's hilarious.
I think he now works for Dell.
Tech Ping.
AOL does this every year. Just an easy way to shed unwanted employees.
I hope they layoff whoever created their annoying commercials, and that loopy airhead mom who thinks she knows everything and jumps on the meeting room table...
Expect more of that. My nephew (whitebread neo-conservative) was among those 700. His wife is going in for surgery Monday. As I understand it, he is getting to keep health ins for 30 days, so he is not going to get royally reamed out because of her surgery.
I called the *local phone number* for CompUSA store and got India. Big help with my question. You want to talk to the store manager? Drive to the store and ask for him in person. Jeez.
AOL is still up and running? If so, why?
;->
I live in the country and only dial up is available. A.O.L. is terrible. No, I don't want another of your incessant pop ups to help me choose my long f-ing distance company.
A.O.L. Sucks.
Your news is less then informative and if I try to go to any other search engine it is like you guys go into a corner and have a hissy fit.
Yahoo blows you clowns away.
Well, SOMEONE had to say it!
Hope Time mag/rag has some of these.
Roger that. AOL was my first ISP (hey, I was a N00b and didn't know any better). After many slow connections and many busy signals in the evening hours and many more "Goodbye! Goodbye!" disconnects for no apparent reason I canceled the service. Even though I canceled, AOL continued to bill my credit card! What a mess it was trying to get that straightened out!
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