AOL Set to Drop 20 Percent of Staff

AOL is set to lay off a whopping 2,000 staffers according to a letter sent to the company’s employees by CEO Randy Falco.

As part of its realignment to focus on three core areas (its Platform A ad unit, publishing and Web access and e-mail business, AOL will begin reducing staff tomorrow, dropping about 2,000 of its 10,000 employees worldwide in the next couple months.

“We added hundreds of people this year through acquisitions,” Falco reminded workers in the e-mail. Whether staff from new acquisitions Tacoda, ThirdScreen Media or AdTech will be among the pink-slipped remains to be seen.

“The last important piece in this transition is the realignment of our costs against these three businesses so we can operate as efficiently and effectively as possible,” wrote Falco. “This is in many ways the most difficult step, but a necessary one….We will aid these individuals in their transition to new opportunities as much as possible, most importantly with what we believe are generous severance packages.”