America Online is laying off more than 700 primarily call center employees in response to declining dial-up subscriber rates, according to reports.
AOL is closing its center in Orlando, FL, and is cutting positions in centers in Jacksonville, FL, and Tucson, AZ, and at AOL’s corporate headquarters in Dulles, VA.
The cuts amount to about 4% of AOL’s 20,000 global work force. This is the largest layoff at AOL since Dec. 2004, according to AOL.
The news comes as Microsoft, Google, Comcast and Yahoo! have all been showing interest in AOL’s ad-supported content business. However, they are not interested in the company’s Internet access business. As of June 30, AOL had 20.8 million U.S. subscribers, down 917,000 from the March quarter and 2.6 million from a year earlier.
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