AOL Shutters European Offices
Offices will close in Germany, Finland, Sweden and Spain, while "significant" cuts are planned in the U.K. and elsewhere.
AOL is closing a number of offices in Europe, in keeping with statements made by CEO Tim Armstrong last week. According to an AOL spokesperson, four German offices will close, alongside those in Finland, Sweden and Spain. In France, management is currently “consulting with workers” on a project to shut down the office, and in the U.K. the company is also planning an unspecified but significant number of cuts.
“The Internet landscape has become increasingly competitive, and we are making difficult choices to take costs out of the business and ensure AOL’s sustainability and future success. Our core strategy is focused on building the highest quality content for consumers and the best products and services for our advertising and publishing partners,” a statement from the company read.
One bright spot in the carnage: Europe-based ad serving business AdTech has been spared the axe. That’s not surprising in light of recent comments made by Armstrong. Speaking last week at a Citi investment conference, he praised AdTech and listed it among AOL properties he says have been undervalued or “forgotten” after the Time Warner/AOL merger. Others on that list include Moviefone, MapQuest, and media platform Winamp.
Armstrong noted AdTech recently had a record day for serving ads in Europe, and he said the company represented one area where AOL was competitive with Google and Microsoft — which both operate in-house ad serving platforms.
Prior to restructuring, the firm had approximately 6,900 employees, 2,300 of which are were located outside of the U.S. It says its goal remains to decrease its overall headcount by one-third overall.
“AOL’s international operations have been wildly unprofitable,” said Armstrong at the Citi conference. “That has presented issues for us in terms of what we want to focus on.”
Zach Rodgers contributed.
