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AOL CEO Randy Falco is a lot like Santa Claus, really. Why, he's downright jolly when laying people off, and he has an uncanny ability to fly whenever and whereever he wants. So who better to pen a year-end missive to rally the elves? Here's that letter, conveniently downsized to just 100 words.

It's over a year since I came to AOL. When I arrived it needed work. More than I expected. Pageviews were in decline. Products were behind and underinvested. Advertising needed investment. I needed to rebuild AOL. Let me highlight progress. We upgraded products. We've refreshed programming. Everything was trending downward on AOL Search; changes have turned these trends around. Internationally, there's upside for AOL. Our ad network reaches 9 in 10 Web users in the U.S. We invested $800 million on advertising. Cutting costs and laying off people is about resource allocation and being smart. I feel really good. I'm making progress. Happy holiday.