AOL To Cut 500 Workers To Narrow Focus On Mobile, Video

According to a report from Bloomberg, AOL is firing as many as 500 employees as part of a restructuring plan to focus on mobile, video and data. The move comes a year after Verizon acquired the company for $4.4 billion. Bloomberg reports: The layoffs are occurring in all of AOL's business units, said the person, who asked not to be identified disclosing the scope of the cuts. AOL employs about 6,400 people worldwide, the person said. In addition to the job cuts, the company will split into two parts, according to the memo. One will be dedicated to media properties, which include Huffington Post and TechCrunch, and the other will focus on platforms, like AOL's advertising technology. "Mobile, video, and data are the key growth drivers of that strategy and the company will be putting resources into each of these areas," [Chief Executive Officer Tim Armstrong wrote in a memo to employees Thursday.] With the wireless industry maturing, AOL parent Verizon has been buying up media and advertising-technology companies and working to refine go90, its free video-streaming service aimed at phone-toting teens.

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[jfdavis668]

You've got mail!

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[george929a]

You've got mail!

The guy behind the voice...Now An Uber Driver In Ohio
https://youtu.be/7fChTDzxcWI [youtu.be]

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[unixisc]

I thought that they were acquired by Verizon. Didn't that happen as yet?

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[ninthbit]

The 80s? Really? Floppies where still going strong into the mid 90s, and AOL was known for their spamming of CDs. They died in the late 90s with those same disks.

Besides the historical inaccuracies... The point is valid. AOL is still around?

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[Dusthead Jr.]

I never had to buy a blank floppy disk during high school in the 90s. I used to send out for them, every computer mag had at least two fill in card for them. I filled a shoe box with them and ever DOS game demos I could get through the mail. The AOL CD were junk. You couldn't reuse them.

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[ShanghaiBill]

The AOL CD were junk. You couldn't reuse them.

There are some hobbyists that collect AOL CDs. There were more than 4000 different AOL CDs [smithsonianmag.com] sent out over the years, and some people have collected them all. If you have some rare specimens, they might be worth more than their weight in gold. Alas, I just tossed all of mine in the trash as soon as they arrived in the mail, unaware of the potential treasure I was holding in my hand.

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[shortscruffydave]

The AOL CD were junk. You couldn't reuse them.

I did - I seem to remember making a bathroom mirror out of a huge batch of them

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[Scarletdown]

Every time I see an old AOL floppy or CD donated to a thrift store, with the recipient's address still on it; I entertain an idea that was put forth on rec.games.video.classic years ago...

Buy the disc, then put it back in the donor's mailbox with a note that says, "We know you threw this away. We don't like it when you do that."

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[unixisc]

The floppies could still be used, once one flipped the write protect switch. The CDs were good only as coasters, and once on a PC Magazine back page (Abort/Retry/Fail), they showed some of the innovative ways those CDs were used - such as mudguards of trucks, and so on

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[networkBoy]

yup, my ex still has an AOL e-mail addy. :/
Interestingly I can't forward email to her from my mailserver, AOL's servers bounce mail forward.

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[ninthbit]

That's probably a DNS problem:
https://www.rackaid.com/blog/e... [rackaid.com]

They probably can't verify the message and regard it as spam.

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[rtb61]

AOL should logically remain around, they had all the necceary infrastructure to remain around, the had the staff to remain around. They unfortunately also had lame arse bean counter psychopath monetisers with spread sheets who ensure their demise due to a profound lack of creativity. The creative types kick off companies and then the manipulative psychopaths take over with their bullshit promotion gaining spreadsheets and drive out the creative types (as the bean counters try to take credit for what ever t

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[zifn4b]

The 80s? Really? Floppies where still going strong into the mid 90s, and AOL was known for their spamming of CDs. They died in the late 90s with those same disks.

Besides the historical inaccuracies... The point is valid. AOL is still around?

Ooh computer/internet history. Yes, the internet did not exist in the 80's. Well let me clarify the general public internet didn't exist. AOL 1.0 from what I recall arrived in 1994 and did indeed come on a single 3.5" floppy disk. Its competitors were Compuserve and Delphi. AOL had a leg up especially on Compuserve because it had a relatively rich application that ran on Windows 3.1 for a more user-friendly experience. However, you were stuck with their browser on their closed network and couldn't use

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[Chris Mattern]

Its competitors were Compuserve and Delphi.

Also Prodigy and GEnie.

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[unixisc]

AOL had merged w/ Time Warner at the height of the dotcom boom, but had split out again, which was probably when the internet service went dead. Wonder what they have beyond their web site. For the record, when Netscape was at its peak, during Netscape 4, I had joined Netcenter and so have a netscape.net email address, which I use to this day, using the AOL servers for IMAP and SMTP. Some of the mergers AOL was involved in did real damage. I just wish Netscape as a company had survived long enough to

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[zifn4b]

AOL had merged w/ Time Warner at the height of the dotcom boom, but had split out again, which was probably when the internet service went dead. Wonder what they have beyond their web site. For the record, when Netscape was at its peak, during Netscape 4, I had joined Netcenter and so have a netscape.net email address, which I use to this day, using the AOL servers for IMAP and SMTP. Some of the mergers AOL was involved in did real damage. I just wish Netscape as a company had survived long enough to be eaten up by Google.

Ow my eyes. You're making me think of the Netscape browser we don't speak of that AOL ruined... it bears the mark of the beast.

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[unixisc]

Actually, the last version of Navigator - Netscape 9 - was a FireFox clone, before AOL killed it. It was suggested to go either to FireFox or Flake. I tried out the latter before that one went EOL as well.

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[zifn4b]

Actually, the last version of Navigator - Netscape 9 - was a FireFox clone, before AOL killed it. It was suggested to go either to FireFox or Flake. I tried out the latter before that one went EOL as well.

I'm referring to Netscape 6 which was AOL's disaster and then Mozilla split back off from them and Netscape 7 became based on their Mozilla engine. Regarding Firefox, that name came about at the 1.0 release: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

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[Opportunist]

I remember them from the late 90s when they handed out those shiny hipster coasters.

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[kimvette]

In the '80s they were known as QuantumLink, an online service for Commodore 64 and 128 users. They did not become AOL until 1991.

Who?

[WillAffleckUW]

I mean, don't get me wrong, I actually owned shares of them due to the AOL/TW merger, and I hacked SimCity because of them.

But even I thought they were dead.

What's next, CompuSerrve announces they are doing Internet 3 on Mars?

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[DrXym]

AOL bought Compuserve and the service became a skinned version of AOL. Small piece of trivia - the Compuserve fat client used Mozilla / Gecko as its embedded browser near the end of its life. AOL was planning to use Gecko in their main client but Microsoft paid them off with a big heap of money. That's what set things unraveling with Netscape causing Mozilla to be spun off as a non-profit org.

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[OrangeTide]

Obama is still President. Theoretically he could still declare himself dictator for life and we wouldn't have to ever deal with Trump.

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[OrangeTide]

So we're screwed either way. Time to panic!

They could come back

[Lucas123]

The good ol' days [dialupsound.com].

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[youngone]

That was fun. I really enjoyed hearing that a couple of times, then I remembered how horrible dialup really was.

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[JustAnotherOldGuy]

I had an Atari 800, you elitist scum!!

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[unixisc]

I used to play Civilization I (it was just called Civilization) in my campus computer center on Friday all-nighters. It used to be fun. Today, w/ Civ VI, you can't change the names of your civilization, your rulers, your cities, squat!

Re: They could come back

[Blythe Bowman]

I remember way back in 1994 entering my senior year in highschool, how we accidently racked up a phone bill in the hundreds of dollars in the first month because we used a number that looked local but wasn't. Ahh dialup..Can't say I miss being disconnected near the end of a 3 hour download that could not be resumed.

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[unixisc]

During that time, I had signed up w/ EarthLink dialup internet service, and sometimes, my roommate would be unable to call me b'cos I was busy on the internet. Those were the days just before cellphones became widespread.

Me too!

[quenda]

Redundancy?
Me too!

For mobile, video and data....

[unixisc]

...why would anyone choose AOL, as opposed to the existing heavy hitters - Apple, Google, Facebook, Amazon, et al?

Re: 500 people?

[Blythe Bowman]

I know you are joking, but a few days ago I was reminicing about AOL and started to wonnder what the fate of their Stratus computer system was (the mainframe they ran the proprietary part of their service on). Did they tear down and junk it? Are parts of it sitting in a museum somewhere? Is it still intact and sitting idle, collecting dust in the room it used to operate in? Or maybe...it's still RUNNING? :::cue errie music:::

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[Scarletdown]

Shelley Duvall claims Robin Williams has become a shape-shifter in troubling Dr. Phil interview

"After vanishing from the spotlight for more than a decade, Shelley Duvall is now looking for mental health help from Dr. Phil.

The "Shining" actress returns to the public eye in an interview with the talk show host in which she makes troubling claims."

https://www.nydailynews.com/en... [nydailynews.com]

I bet this is PTSD for the Popeye movie she co-starred with Robin in. A shame too. All the actors perfectly nailed their roles. Unfortunately, that was not enough to redeem a most horrific script and storyline.

Split

[manu0601]

the company will split into two parts, according to the memo. One will be dedicated to media properties, which include Huffington Post and TechCrunch, and the other will focus on platforms, like AOL's advertising technology.

They split the more profitable advertising from the less profitable media properties. Expect more bitterness for the later.

People still use AOL?

[Nunya666]

Wow, I thought they died in the 90s.

Embrace the USA

[AHuxley]

Become a First Amendment US brand. Say NO to other nations cults, theocracies, monarchies, celebrities, gov workers, SJW and political parties.
Sell the freedom of speech only the US offers to the world on a US platform. Attract the fun and dynamic users from other gov friendly global web 2.0 brands.
Invite them in to enjoy the freedoms the USA has always protected and offered.
Be the freedom brand that stands out from the boring, safe global gov approved social media. Talk to the brands real users and c

Surprising

[JustAnotherOldGuy]

The surprising part is that AOL still had 500 employees.

AOL Layoffs? Must be the holiday season.

[Tassach]

I worked at AOL for 4 years. Layoffs happened every year like clockwork around the holiday season. Great people, shitty company.