Now Will I Stop Getting Those Activation Disks?

Remember when AOL essentially owned the Internet? Remember how that Time Warner deal was going to make them one of the last media conglomerates left standing?

Randy Falco, the chief executive of AOL, announced in an internal memo on Monday that the company would eliminate 2,000 of its 10,000 jobs over the next few months. Word of the layoffs has been kicking around for months. Mr. Falco, a former top NBC executive, is trying to streamline AOL’s executive ranks. AOL has had a series of layoffs over the last few years, although these mainly have centered on customer service and operational employees.

“Painful” is how one AOL exec described the mood in an instant message to me today.

AOL has been struggling to find a new business to replace its rapidly declining Internet access service. It has tried to build AOL.com into a portal to take on Yahoo. That has allowed it to keep a hold on some defecting AOL members who want to continue to use AOL for e-mail and perhaps other services.

If Fucked Company were still around this would be on the front page.

AOL tried to set up gates around the Internet, and control all the content, so that users had to stay within their assigned spaces. It didn't work for the information revolution to have a gatekeeper. And it won't work with the other telecom companes attempting to subvert net neutrality. To borrow a conservative phrase, the market has spoken.

I feel bad for AOL's employees, but their employer was operating with a failed business model.