Business News
AOL to cut 1,300 jobs
May 9, 2006, 18:12 GMT
New York - Troubled Internet giant AOL said Tuesday that it would cut about 1,300 US employees - 7 per cent of its worldwide work force - as improved online support and a declining customer base cut the need for call centres.
'The Internet world of 2006 is very different from the world of 1996 when AOL first established these member centres,' AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham said. 'Today, AOL members are more savvy and sophisticated online. They are very different members today than they were in 1996.'
Graham said that customers were increasingly trouble-shooting problems themselves using online tools and that call volume had dropped some 50 per cent since 2004.
The company had around 18.6 million subscribers at the end of March, down from a peak of 26.7 million in September 2002 as subscribers increasingly prefer broadband services offered by cable and phone companies.
© 2006 dpa - Deutsche Presse-AgenturCOMMENT
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