In an another last ditch effort to turn AOL into a profitable business, CEO Tim Armstrong has begun a massive restructuring project. As we all know, you cannot rebuild if the original structure is still standing. In a cost cutting effect, 700 Indian employees and 200 United States employees of the once titanic AOL have been let go.

It’s not all bad news for those who lost their jobs. 300 of the Indian employees will be moved to AOL outsourcing partners. In an effort to show just how committed Mr. Armstrong is to revitalizing AOL, he stated he invested $10 million of his own money in AOL stock.

The plan is the same plan every dying company has used since business began: diversify. Since I am sure you haven’t thought about AOL in 8 years, they acquired TechCrunch and Huffington Post. This gives them a rather large section of their company dedicated to news as these new additions join AOL-owned Engadget. We will see if this new focus can turn their company around and hopefully provide growth for the American brand.

This is all a surprise to me as I believed AOL to be long dead. While I truly hope the company can rebound and possible provide jobs for U.S. citizens in the future, I still have not forgiven them for killing Netscape.

R.I.P. Netscape 1994 – 2007

Source: Tom’s Hardware

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