AOL Consolidates Calif. Operations, Lays Off 450

America Online is laying off 450 people, or 2% of its workforce, as the struggling Internet service provider consolidates its software development operations in California.

AOL spokesman Jim Whitney said Tuesday that the company would also close its software development offices in San Francisco and San Diego as it consolidates its development efforts in Irvine and Mountain View.

Whitney said the job reductions would leave AOL with a workforce of 19,000. He said 100 of the people being laid off would be offered the opportunity to relocate.

Some of the aspects of the work being done by the people being fired would be consolidated into AOL’s software development centers in White Plains, N.Y., and Dulles, Va., Whitney said. Most of the people being laid off were software engineers, he said.

Whitney declined to say what software development might be stopped as a result of the job cuts. He said the work would not be outsourced.

The job cuts follow a round of layoffs at AOL this spring, when the company cut 420 jobs at its call centers.

Shares of Time Warner Inc., AOL’s parent company, fell 1 cent to close at $16.48 on the New York Stock Exchange.