AOL Plans Layoffs at Netscape, Report Says

America Online Inc., moving quickly to swallow its newly acquired Netscape unit, reportedly plans to slash up to 30% of the software pioneer’s work force, or 750 employees.

The cuts in Netscape’s 2,500-work force could come as soon as next week, TheStreet.com online financial news service reported Friday, citing unnamed sources close to the company. Netscape’s employees mostly work at its Mountain View, Calif., headquarters.

The report comes just two days after AOL, the largest provider of Internet access and online service, completed its $10-billion acquisition to create a new Web giant. Netscape pioneered the first widely used software for retrieving Internet information, but was forced to sell itself after a bruising business assault by software giant Microsoft Corp.

Jim Whitney, a spokesman for Dulles, Va.-based AOL, declined to comment on the report, but said the parent will have “more information next week on how the two companies will operate together.” Netscape spokeswoman Patti Pierson said “it’s totally premature to even speculate about layoffs at this point.”

But financial analysts have expected AOL to cut parts of Netscape’s work force that overlap, such as marketing and public relations, and said the reported cuts didn’t seem out of line. Netscape also could be hit by cuts in divisions that make software already made by Sun Microsystems Inc., another partner in the deal.

AOL’s stock gained $3.13 to close at $119.25 on the New York Stock Exchange.