AOL is eliminating another 2,000 jobs worldwide as it tries to cut costs and make room to grow in online advertising, an Associated Press report said.
The 20% slice from AOL's work force comes after several rounds of layoffs in recent years, including a cut of 5,000 jobs last fall, the report said.
The Associated Press report quoted officials as saying that the latest cuts would give AOL more flexibility to expand ad-related businesses through acquisitions and potentially new hires.
'This realignment will allow us to increase investment in high-growth areas of the company _ as an example, we added hundreds of people this year through acquisitions, while scaling back in areas with less growth potential or those that aren't core to our business,' AOL CEO Randy Falco was quoted by the report as saying.
AOL, once the leading seller of Internet access subscriptions, has struggled in recent years as Internet users have ditched their AOL accounts for high-speed services offered by cable and telephone companies, the report said
To make up for declines in subscription revenues, the company has been trying to boost traffic to its ad-supported web sites and last year began giving away, the report said.