This should come as no surprise to anyone who knows of the Huffington Post acquisition (and particularly to anyone who’s been watching headlines for the past week or so), but AOL’s laying off employees again. The total number of affected individuals is close to 1,000.
Leena Rao, who actually works for AOL now that it’s been bought TechCrunch, confirmed some rough figures earlier this morning. She wrote, “AOL will be letting go a little over 200 U.S. employees, around 120 of which are editorial staffers. The remaining employees that are being let go also work in AOL’s media business but in other operations (technology, product).”
Then, as rumors suggested, it turns out that the other employees targeted by these layoffs live in India. Rao reported, “In total, India’s casualties are above 700 employees. In India, AOL will be letting go around 400 employees and transitioning around approximately 300 employees to become contractors.”
Let’s hope that last detail softens the blow a bit.
Anyway, all this activity seems to have impressed investors. At the moment, AOL’s stock is up 0.41 percent, even as the Dow is down 1.31 percent and the Nasdaq is down 1.52 percent.
The latest round of layoffs may make AOL a more profitable company (and safer place to work) as intended, then.