After a while–in a BoomTown mangling of the old cliché–if you are a nail, everything begins to look like a hammer.

So, it is probably inevitable that the next thing for much-beleaguered AOL staffers to start rumbling about is 2,000 people getting laid off next week.

After all, the Time Warner unit has a long history of whacking employees. So, it is easier to assume things will not be different under the regime of the latest CEO, Tim Armstrong.

Except it’s not actually true that such massive cuts are in the offing, since–as many sources I spoke to said–Armstrong is in the early part of figuring out what to do about the cost structure of AOL, after laying out a company strategy and rejiggering management.

Read More »

As BoomTown and many others in the blogosphere have reported for weeks now (so glad old media outlets have finally discovered the Yahoo layoffs), Yahoo management is working on at least a 10 percent layoff of its almost 15,000 employees.

But, because top execs have decided they need the cuts to have good “optics” for Wall Street, they have instructed managers over the weekend to make sure that all cuts include specific staff reductions, even though previous marching orders only had called for percentage cuts in costs.

The sudden shift is irking many managers I spoke to at Yahoo, who now have long had a modicum of control over their own businesses and feel they are being dictated to by top management who got the company in trouble in the first place.

Read More »