America Online Inc has continued the restructuring efforts it announced last week, cutting 105 jobs in addition to the 500 lost at its newly-acquired CompuServe unit. The job cuts will come in the WorldPlay interactive games unit and at the Entertainment Asylum web site. At a meeting with analysts, the company also warned that it could see some pressure on its bottom line in the current third quarter due to heavy use of the service, according to The Wall Street Journal. The negative impact is expected to be about $0.02 to $0.03 per share, but AOL is still confident it can meet yearly earnings expectations of $0.92 per share. Analysts currently expect $0.25 from the third quarter. Also at the meeting, AOL said it expects to form an alliance with a cable- modem company such as @Home Corp to increase service levels and decrease overall internet access costs, according to a Bloomberg report. The report also said that the company is set to aggressively pursue acquisitions, although no specific takeover targets were mentioned. The analyst meeting comes at a time when AOL is making all the right moves to endear itself to Wall Street with its reorganization, staff cuts and the announcement that it will raise its subscriber fees by 10% in April (CI No 3,344). The activity led AOL shares steadily up last week to a 52-week high of $117.4375 before profit takers edged the shares back to $114.25 on Friday.
