AOL to lay off 5,000

ABOUT 5,000 jobs are to go at AOL as parent Time Warner continues its attempts to sort through the wreckage of one of the most ill-starred combinations in business history.

The cuts represent a little over a quarter of staff at the internet access giant and come as part of sweeping changes at the firm. Recently, AOL has been in talks to dispose of European wings including the UK and has announced plans to make access to its email and security software free for broadband users.

AOL will next month begin offering its XDrive free storage feature. Xdrive,based on an acquisition AOL made last year, offers 5GB of space and will compete with the likes of Google's GDrive and a host of others.

However, AOL appears to be charging $10 per month for users wanting to take part in a trial. A 50GB premium paid-for upgrade will also be available. Good luck with that. µ