Fotix Posted December 12, 2002 Share Posted December 12, 2002 (edited) Said to be part of a first-wave of cuts... NEW YORK (Reuters) - America Online cut about 300 jobs on Wednesday, beginning what is expected to be a wave of layoffs as it trims costs and tries to revive the embattled Internet division of AOL Time Warner Inc. AOL.N , a source close to the company said. The positions cut in this round of layoffs amount to 1.7 percent of Dulles, Virginia-based America Online's work force of about 18,000 people. Most of the cuts took place in America Online's northern Virginia offices, in Dulles and Reston, as well as in its Mountain View, California, offices that house businesses such as Netscape and part of its technology development group, comprised mostly of software engineers, the source said. Sources familiar with the situation as well as analysts expect the layoffs to be the first of several over the next couple of months -- targeting overlap and areas that are no longer core to the company's new strategy. Scattered cuts in Columbus, Ohio and "a handful" of layoffs in America Online's other offices around the country were part of Wednesday's move. The company's discount Internet service, CompuServe, is based in Columbus, which also houses other employees in AOL's Web properties group. That group includes online mapping service MapQuest, Moviefone, Netscape and the company's popular instant messaging services, AIM and ICQ. The technology development and Web properties groups were among the areas hit by the cuts, the source said. America Online Chief Executive Jon Miller said earlier this month he planned to cut costs in the "nine-figure" amount, and most analysts expected reductions of more than $100 million. Miller also indicated the company may phase out areas that were not core to its new strategy of building a high-speed Internet service as well as developing new paid and commerce services and new programming. The AOL division has been struggling with a deep slump in advertising spending and subscriber growth, as well as federal probes into its accounting practices. Some sources have said the layoffs could match the 1,925 made last year, shortly after AOL completed its $106.2 billion purchase of Time Warner. An AOL spokesman declined to comment. Shares of AOL fell 10 cents to close at $13.65 on the New York Stock Exchange. Source: Reuters My biggest worry is how long until AOL's woes begin to affect Netscape, Mozilla, Instant Messenger, and Winamp? Good thing the Gecko code is open-sourced, if it wasn't, it would fade into obscurity if something happened to developers on AOL's payroll... Edited December 12, 2002 by Fotix Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
PureEdit Posted December 12, 2002 Share Posted December 12, 2002 Cool, I would be happy to loose my job from them :p 10,000 more cuts (or how ever many people that work there) and life will be good :p Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistical Posted December 12, 2002 Share Posted December 12, 2002 (edited) Thank god, havn't been involved with AOL stuff in such a long time, but just thank god they are cutting jobs now, there were so many untrained techs or whatever there. Edited December 12, 2002 by mistical Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toxikk Veteran Posted December 12, 2002 Veteran Share Posted December 12, 2002 if you all only phucking new how tite it is to work there, you would not talk as much sh|t as you all do. you kind of people **** me off. looking past the bs that you all see.... it is a really cool company. i feel bad for you people that are not enlightened. you all shouldnt run your mouth until you have worked there and known people that got laid off. it is NOT fun during these times and you have no consideration for other people. what if your dad worked there and got laidoff. you would totally have a different view of this. GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: :angry: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
trashpickinman Posted December 12, 2002 Share Posted December 12, 2002 I agree with Toxikk, my brother-in-law worked at AOL and was one of those who got cut, fortunately he got another job in another part of the company, but lots of other people didnt. But for awhile there he wasnt sure what was going to happen with him and his family. I feel sorry for anybody who loses there job right now. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Fotix Posted December 12, 2002 Author Share Posted December 12, 2002 Anyway the world economy has been in the dumps since 2000; everything has been crunched in one way or another. I don't have a problem, myself, with AOL, since I haven't used their service since the mid 90s. I think merging with Time-Warner was a huge mistake because they never properly capitalized on that synergy. AOL reportedly has been lagging in subscriber growth, and lost customers to MSN and Earthlink and other broadband companies. It sucks for them but they do implement weird policies every once in a while for their customers (see the last article on them I posted here). That being said, I don't know how high unemployment is going to climb until new ideas about how to go about doing business are used to spur new growth. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistical Posted December 12, 2002 Share Posted December 12, 2002 Whatever you say Toxikk, but I know why I hold my grudge against AOL. No reason to explain it here, does not concern any of you. I'm sure parts of AOL might be cool, but I doubt it in my own opinion, trying to get help from AOL is horrible, it just never happens. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toxikk Veteran Posted December 12, 2002 Veteran Share Posted December 12, 2002 blah blah. more than half of the reason tech support looks bad is cuz of the people that need it. take for instince that dude that signed up for aol and used a long distance phone number cuz there was no local one. that makes him look like a dumbass but yet it is perceived that it is something aol did. did aol ever do anything to you? i think the only people that have any reasonsable excuse to have grudges with aol are its competitors and those who used to work there and dont anymore. you just cant explain it here cuz your reason to hold a grudge is a lame one and you dont want to sound like a dumbass. i know how it is. its just like all you other haters that despise aol. just cuz its on the top you all have to hate it. its old, lame, childish. get over it. it makes me sick. :x :angry: :angry: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
username Posted December 12, 2002 Share Posted December 12, 2002 Cool, I would be happy to loose my job from them :p10,000 more cuts (or how ever many people that work there) and life will be good :p you know, i would say that your are 13 years old but then again, i think any 13 your old has more sense than you :angry: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
username Posted December 12, 2002 Share Posted December 12, 2002 I'm sure parts of AOL might be cool, but I doubt it in my own opinion, trying to get help from AOL is horrible, it just never happens. hmm, i am sure those are user created problem by reading your posts... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
mistical Posted December 14, 2002 Share Posted December 14, 2002 Toxikk, I would not say my reason to hate AOL is "lame" or any such reason like that. And username, it's not a user created problem... heh Anyways, cya. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toxikk Veteran Posted December 14, 2002 Veteran Share Posted December 14, 2002 then post it. we shall see how lame it is. :crazy: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
username Posted December 14, 2002 Share Posted December 14, 2002 then post it. we shall see how lame it is. :crazy: yeah :laugh: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jago6498 Posted December 14, 2002 Share Posted December 14, 2002 Geez people, who gives a $hit. Anyone who works for a internet-based company should be smart enough to know that their job isn't permanent. Let's not have an argument. OK people? If you wanna argue about it, then PM each other. Geeeesh!!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IlliniPi Posted December 14, 2002 Share Posted December 14, 2002 I would have to agree with Toxikk. Most AOL haters haven't even used AOL. It's quite a sad thing. I used AOL for 7 or 8 years of my life and had only minor problems. So many people that bash it for little poop reasons. I'm glad someone finally took AOL's side for once. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
killzone Posted December 14, 2002 Share Posted December 14, 2002 I used aohell and hated it. Only reason its supposedly #1 is the billions they pour into ads. Looks like theyre still losers in the end. Loser company. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jago6498 Posted December 14, 2002 Share Posted December 14, 2002 I would have to agree with Toxikk. Most AOL haters haven't even used AOL. It's quite a sad thing. I used AOL for 7 or 8 years of my life and had only minor problems. So many people that bash it for little poop reasons. I'm glad someone finally took AOL's side for once. Actually I used AOL for about a year or so 7 I HATED it. The only good thing that I ever got out of AOL was gettinf the movie "Armageddon" on VHS for FREE...but other then that, most of the things they advertise that you can get with AOL ARE NOT exclusives. After AOL I switched to Earthlink and I was sooooo much happier. With AOL I was ALWAYS being disconnected, but with Earthlink I rarely got disconnected and the Customer Service Reps were very cool & friendly. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toxikk Veteran Posted December 14, 2002 Veteran Share Posted December 14, 2002 you people will never learn. what makes aol any worse than microsoft? they dont have any issues nearly as bad as microsoft does. they dont steal ideas from other people, they dont make software that allows a users computer to be as vulnerable as windows is. you give me one good reason other than the same old poop "its for noobies" of why aol is so BAD. there is NO good reason and wont be. suck it up. get over it. and stop making yourselves sound like fools. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jago6498 Posted December 14, 2002 Share Posted December 14, 2002 you people will never learn. what makes aol any worse than microsoft? they dont have any issues nearly as bad as microsoft does. they dont steal ideas from other people, they dont make software that allows a users computer to be as vulnerable as windows is. you give me one good reason other than the same old poop "its for noobies" of why aol is so BAD. there is NO good reason and wont be. suck it up. get over it. and stop making yourselves sound like fools. Dang...I someone has a problem with taking something to seriously...:blink::wacko::rolleyes:... I stated my reason for not liking AOL and I think it's a pretty valid one. Let me state again... ...ISP's should have a stable and reliable connection (& not over-price like AOL does.) Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toxikk Veteran Posted December 14, 2002 Veteran Share Posted December 14, 2002 how much more expensive is aol than msn? and how much more content does aol serve, and how much more will it serve in the few months? and how much content does earthlink serve? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
IlliniPi Posted December 14, 2002 Share Posted December 14, 2002 I used aohell and hated it. Only reason its supposedly #1 is the billions they pour into ads. Looks like theyre still losers in the end. Loser company. You don't think other companies use ads? I'll admit that AOL does have a few too many commercials and seem to have a problem with giving out demo CDs, but they have to make money some way. AOL is popular because internet-newbie people can understand it and use it. This is one reason why AOL is so widely used. The fact that you call AOL aohell is also very lamer-ish. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jago6498 Posted December 14, 2002 Share Posted December 14, 2002 how much more expensive is aol than msn? and how much more content does aol serve, and how much more will it serve in the few months? and how much content does earthlink serve? I could really careless about the content that they offer. Pretty much all of AOL's so-called "content" is just stuff from the web that they combined into on location. At the time, Earthlink was like $3 to $4 cheaper then AOL and actually did what it was supposed to do...keep me connected to the internet. I could really careless about dial-up ISP's now b/c I'm on AT&T Roadrunner broadband... Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toxikk Veteran Posted December 14, 2002 Veteran Share Posted December 14, 2002 guess what bud. at&t dont own roadrunner. AOL TimeWarner does. LMAO. http://www.aoltw.com/companies/time_warner...cable_index.adp BAH HAHAHAHAHAHAHA Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jago6498 Posted December 14, 2002 Share Posted December 14, 2002 guess what bud. at&t dont own roadrunner. AOL TimeWarner does. LMAO.http://www.aoltw.com/companies/time_warner...cable_index.adp BAH HAHAHAHAHAHAHA And last time I check ALL the bills we get are from AT&T. I guess I was just used to seeing Roadrunner on the bill for such a long time. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Toxikk Veteran Posted December 14, 2002 Veteran Share Posted December 14, 2002 hmm. infringement maybe? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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