Ever since its Huffington Post acquisition, AOL has been hounded by a countdown: How long until layoffs? Most reports said the staff slashing would begin once the deal was solidified, and now rumor has it that employees could find themselves on the chopping block by Friday.
According to Forbes, all the signs for layoffs within the company have surfaced. The acquisition was finalized on Monday and Arianna Huffington is slated to make a “big announcement about the shape of things to come” on Friday. Insiders say that the editorial staff should be the most wary of the end of the work week, and that “key AOL contributors” have been approached by Huffington in advance, to reaffirm their positions are safe and ascertain their allegiance will stay with AOL post-cuts.
There’s also the fact that AOL has already revealed it will be “restructuring.” Business Insider reports that its SEC filings shortly following the acquisition, AOL said as much and that it would need $20 million to cover these costs. AOL CEO Tim Armstrong also recently admitted that “there will be job changes” as a result of the deal. The company already lost its former content chief, who more or less found his position made useless by the acquisition, and the introduced leadership of Huffington herself.
This next round of layoffs should not rival those AOL instituted in 2009. In an attempt to save itself millions of dollars, the company cut approximately 2,500 jobs. The coming “restructuring” is rumored to eliminate hundreds, in comparison.
