AOL is culling 750 workers at its HQ in Northern Virginia, three weeks after announcing plans to split the business into four divisions.

The reorganisation is designed to cut bureaucracy and improve efficiency, as well as making the decision-making process "much crisper". Axing four per cent of the workforce should also help cut costs as the ISP giant battles to cope with falling customer numbers.

At the end of September AOL had 22.7m US users, down 646,000 on the previous quarter and two million down on a year ago. It blamed the decline on an exodus of customers from its service and poor uptake to its marketing campaigns, as consumers opted for rival dial-up services or shifted to broadband instead.

In March AOL warned stiffer competition from broadband and cheaper dial-up services meant that "significant" erosion of subscriber numbers looks set to continue.

Last December AOL trim its software development operation, axing 450 workers and shutting two California offices. ®

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