Struggling online portal AOL says it is laying off some 200 U.S. staffers from its technology and content departments in a move to eliminate redundancy in the wake of AOL’s $315 million acquisition of The Huffington Post. Layoffs have been widely expected to follow on the heels of the acquisition as AOL integrates The Huffington Post organization into its content development teams and installs Ariana Huffington as the editor in chief of all AOL content offerings.
The layoffs will also impact some 700 AOL positions in India that mainly provide backend support to AOL’s U.S. operations; however, an AOL spokesperson has indicated to the Associated Press that a few hundred of those positions are actually being shifted to other companies that will begin handling AOL’s support operations.
AOL’s acquisition of The Huffington Post closed on Monday. AOL immediately announced six new additions to its reporting staff, including three established journalists from the New York Daily News, the New York Times, and Yahoo. AOL CEO Tim Armstrong characterized the new hires as “only the beginning.”
