AOL has announced yesterday that it’s shutting down a number of its European operating entities and shedding over 1,000 jobs. In November 2009 in which the company hoped to reach a 2,500 person reduction through voluntary separation. The first to close their doors are the offices in Sweden and Spain followed by four offices in Germany; Hamburg, Frankfurt, Düsseldorf and Munich.
AOL must now start the painful process of consulting with the Employment Authorities of each country affected.
Last month (Dec 2009) Time Warner “spun out” AOL in what is largely believed to be a failed merger. When the Time Warner/AOL deal went through in 2000 it was considered a merger of equals and was to be the beginning of a “Media Powerhouse”. Unfortunately the hype never materialized as success on the balance sheet.
AOL was for a long time synonomous with the word Internet and built it’s business on Dial-up Internet access. At one point in time AOL had 90% web browser share with it’s purchase of Netscape over a decade ago; my oh my how times have changed. In 2001 Consumers started their shift away from Dial-up to DSL/Cable, AOL didn’t make the move fast enough, started to lose subscribers and never recovered.
AdTech, which came to the company through an acquisition in May of 2007, are successful according to AOL and will continue operations.
