German America Online flogged to the Italians

TIME WARNER IS turning its back on Germany by flogging its AOL outfit to Telecom Italia SpA for about $870 million.

According to the International Herald Tribune, the deal is "cash only" and will be sorted out by slashing of 5,000 jobs, or a quarter of its global work force.

AOL Germany had been doing quite well. It did have 1.1 million broadband users and another 1.3 million subscribers on dial-up. The country's broadband market is also looking quite promising.

The buy will make the Milanese outfit the second-biggest provider of broadband Internet in Germany with 3.2 million customers.

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