AOL to Trim Headcount

AOL Inc. (AOL) recently declared that its Board of Directors has approved a plan to trim one-third of its headcount as a part of its restructuring program, which also involves shedding some assets. 

The company will incur a restructuring charge of $200 million, including approximately $150 million related to employee severance and benefits. AOL’s split from Time Warner Inc. (TWX) took place on Dec. 9, 2009. 

AOL had been striving to revamp itself to become an independent online company preparing to compete with Google Inc. (GOOG), Yahoo! Inc. (YHOO) and Microsoft Corporation (MSFT) in the U.S. market for online advertising valued at $29 billion. The company will now focus more on capturing online readership by increasing content offerings and providing an online advertising platform. 

The company’s revenue dipped 23% to $777 million in third-quarter 2009 due to a 29% drop in subscription revenue, resulting from sustained subscriber losses and an 18% fall in advertising revenue. AOL lost nearly 438,000 subscribers during the period. 

AOL owns and operates more than 80 branded and niche content sites, which include independent music site Spinner, sports site Fanhouse, Engadget for tech news, the MapQuest site and social-networking service Bebo.

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