WASHINGTON: AOL is laying off around 200 employees in the United States and 700 in India, nearly 20 percent of its global workforce, a source close to the Internet company said Thursday.
The 200 employees losing their jobs in the United States were mostly employed in the media and technology groups at AOL, the faded Internet star which is seeking to reinvent itself as a force in online news.
AOL completed its acquisition of The Huffington Post news and opinion website on Monday and AOL chief executive Tim Armstrong warned last week that the purchase would result in layoffs at AOL.
With the $315 million buy of The Huffington Post, AOL will rely less on freelancers, the source told AFP, and there will be a "net gain" in editorial staff despite the layoffs.
The source said 300 of the 700 employees being laid off in India would continue to be employed by third-party companies providing services to AOL.
The Huffington Post buy was the latest high-profile purchase by Armstrong, who joined AOL from Google two years ago in an attempt to turn around a company whose name has become synonymous with the dotcom era's excesses.
In September, AOL purchased TechCrunch, a leading Silicon Valley technology blog. Other AOL properties include Engadget, Patch, Moviefone, MapQuest, Black Voices, PopEater, AOL Music, AOL Latino, AutoBlog and StyleList.
AOL, formerly known as America Online, fused with Time Warner in 2001 at the height of the dotcom boom in what is considered one of the most disastrous mergers ever.
It was spun off by Time Warner in December into an independent company.
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