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On August 20, big layoffs are expected in AOL's technology operations. AOL CEO Randy Falco's vision for the Time Warner-owned Internet company: Get rid of all that messy Internet stuff. Madison Avenue, let's do lunch! Stripping AOL down to an ad-sales operation (and a collection of Web properties on which to place ads) requires shedding some of the things AOL was best known for — like hosting large-scale websites. After AOL bought Weblogs Inc., gadget blog Engadget handled Macworld-keynote traffic like a champ. Alas, the server farms are soon to be put out to pasture, if a tipster is correct. Commenter aoltech1 writes:

AOL is getting ready to have major layoffs again. After a so so report card rumor has it that they are selling their MTC & DTC data centers and will be contracting all of the services out to Emcor. There are way too many managers and a lot of them are expected to get laid off. After attending meetings it appears that upper management has finally realized they are way too many managers in technologies and that it would be better to contract central config, asset management, IPE's and SI.Operations is going to take a big hit.

MTC and DTC are datacenters based in Manassas, Va., and the vicinity of Dulles Airport, respectively, near AOL's former Northern Virginia headquarters. Emcor is, as best we can tell, a facilities and construction manager better known for doing the wiring on datacenters than running a network operations center. It's not clear how AOL's websites will fare during a transition to a new, inexperienced Web host. AOL employees: You've got layoffs. AOL users; You've got fail! (Photo of AOL server farm via KK)