In the midst of a major restructuring, AOL is reportedly planning to lay off around 150 employees. What's more, the media corporation is said to be consolidating a number of its websites - some of which you may frequent for gaming and technology news and reviews.
According to a report from TechCrunch (which is owned by AOL), gaming site Joystiq will become a separate channel of Engadget while The Unofficial Apple Weblog, better known as TUAW, will be shut down on February 2. Its content, however, will also be folded into Engadget.
Both publications have a solid reputation in the tech world but their traffic has been on the decline. As the publication notes, both came to AOL as a result of its acquisition of Weblogs in 2005. No word yet on whether or not the brand names will remain.
Elsewhere, AOL Autos has already been folded into Autoblog.
Why is everything being folded into Engadget, you ask? Sources say it's pretty simple: AOL wants to focus its content efforts on its sites that pull in the most traffic.
The 150 or so employees reportedly getting the axe will mostly be in the sales department. The reason for this is because the company is shifting to programmatic advertising which involves a heavy investment in technology and thus, less on salespeople.
AOL is set to announce its fourth quarter earnings on February 11.