• The New York Times, Wednesday, March 14, 2012 12:52 PM

While tame by AOL’s standards, the company is reportedly in the process of axing more than 100 employees. On Friday, AOL told more than 40 staffers from its West Coast offices that their tenures would end before April, The New York Times’ Bits blog reports. “The AOL Instant Messenger group took the deepest cut so far,” according to Bit. In fact, the group was “eviscerated and now only consists of support staff,” a former AOL employee tells Bits. Patch.com, AOL’s hyperlocal news network, now appears to be in the company’s crosshairs.

In AOL’s official words, “we are making some strategic but very difficult changes to better align our resources with key areas of growth for us as a company … We remain committed to our presence in Silicon Valley and driving innovation in consumer products and mobile.”

Among the more prominent cuts, Jason Shellen, vice president of the AOL messenger products -- who once ran its Thing Labs division -- is out. As sources tell NYT, AOL’s Instant Messenger group operation is making money to the tune of $50 million a year. The problem, however, is that the unit reportedly costs close to $25 million to run. AOL’s goal, as Bits reports, is to get these costs down to $2 to $3 million a year.

Read the whole story at The New York Times »