The plan was scrapped and AOL decided to keep 100% of all of the entities.

Armstrong was given $5 million in new options. However Armstrong will be given fewer benefits compared to the prior agreement that was entered prior to AOL’s spin-off from Time Warner

Even though AOL acquired Huffington Post and TechCrunch, the company’s website traffic barely moved. A year ago, AOL was hitting 106 million monthly unique visitors to their website. And this year, the total was only 107 million.

About 700 workers in India will be laid off as well. The Huffington Post co-founder Ariana Huffington and AOL CEO Tim Armstrong said that they are planning on investing in high-quality, original content produced by journalists. But both companies have cited this goal in the past only to continue focusing on aggregating content from across the web.

Below is the memo from Tim Armstrong about the lay offs:

From: Armstrong, Tim
Sent: Thursday, March 10, 2011 07:16 AM
To: Armstrong, Tim
Subject: AOL’s Next Step

AOLers -

Today is the next critical step on the comeback trail for AOL. We are creating a next generation hyper-local, national and global media company, and every action we’ve taken since AOL became an independent company has taken us further down that path. Our strategy remains clear: create high quality content experiences for consumers, at scale. As the digital landscape quickly evolves, so must our business, and we must continue to transform our organizational structure to one that works for today’s Internet.

Today, we are announcing an organizational structure that will significantly improve AOL’s ability to focus on growth. The structure will also impact areas of our team–making the decision to reduce staff levels is a necessary part of rebalancing our workforce to be competitive in our industry. Affected employees will be notified today and AOL will offer assistance programs–including workspace, counseling, and technology. We ask all of our employees to help impacted employees find career opportunities within our industry.

The structural changes at AOL are possible because of the progress we have made as a team in the last 12 months. The majority of our sites have materially improved their consumer experiences, our advertising business continues to get healthier and more innovative, our video position is strengthening everyday, our local footprint is quickly expanding, we are attracting some of the most talented people in the world to work at AOL, and our technology infrastructure is simpler and more robust. AOL is a global brand and a global opportunity and we are doing the hard work that will once again make the company an industry leader.

There are three important aspects to the structural changes we are making today. The first is the architecture of our brand portfolio. The second is the organizational design of The Huffington Post Media Group. The third is our shift from India being a business process center to India being a consumer products group focused on the APAC market.

New Structure: Investing in our Brand Portfolio

AOL’s brand portfolio has become more focused and stronger over the last year and we will continue to invest in our brands. We are committed to an AOL brand architecture that empowers us to build best-in-class brands that serve valuable audiences with incredible content and great experiences. As you have seen and have access to, AOL’s brands are measured with a consistent set of criteria that will allow us to transparently judge the health of each brand. As we considered adding The Huffington Post, we looked at the combined assets of the two companies and have found creative ways to strengthen our portfolio and will continue the brand refinement process over time. AOL will have four areas of significant brands: Media (Media & Ads–including Local), Publisher Networks (Media & Ads for Publishers), Applications (Communications, Mobile, Commerce), and Subscriptions (Paid Subscribers).

We have a clear path to brand success–which is only turbo-charged with the addition of the Huffington Post to our brand portfolio. We have an AOL brand that enjoys 99% brand awareness and our commitment to reinvigorating the AOL Brand has enabled us to begin to shift brand perception of AOL–including being named as one of the top 50 brands “loved” by consumers at the end of 2010. We will continue to invest in the AOL Brand as well as support best-in-class brands that will allow us to grow our overall audience and reflect our focus on the most valuable audiences–our 80, 80, 80 strategy.

New Structure: Huffington Post Media Group

The addition of the Huffington Post will be a core foundational element in our drive to be a leading digital media and brand advertising company. HuffPost attracts over 27 million people a month–its unique visitors have increased 588% over the last three years, and revenue has increased 400%. The company is leading the way in connecting content with social communities. AOL will be replacing approximately $20 million of loss in our news and finance operation with a high growth company and a team that is pioneering the way the world gets information.

The newly formed Huffington Post Media Group (HPMG) is a vehicle to house and grow our investments in journalism and content in general. The goal of HPMG will be to create compelling, content-driven experiences for users. Consumers, world-class brands, relevant audiences, and innovative brand advertising opportunities are a winning formula for the future of the web and HPMG will have significant resources and distribution to be a leader in our space.

With Arianna’s leadership and vision, HPMG will be fueled by high-quality editorial content, and will give AOL the enhanced ability to deliver a scaled and differentiated array of premium news, analysis, entertainment, information, and community – all integrating our local, national and global content initiatives. As President and Editor-in-Chief, Arianna will lead the content vision. Jon Brod, as HPMG Chief Operating Officer, will be Arianna’s business partner and lead the business strategy for HPMG. We will replicate this model through the vertical content areas and become an editorial-led media organization that allows us to create higher quality content in real time, while better aligning the editorial and business sides of our company.

We are creating Department Editor positions for each of the editorial departments and their partners will be the General Managers (formerly our Mayors), who will continue to serve as CEOs, driving revenue, distribution and overall growth strategy for the departments they support. We will be expanding the advertising programs (like Project Devil) and the distribution opportunities (like mobile and video) through the work of the GMs. GMs will also work to connect the content brands with our central sales force.

The editorial-driven model of The Huffington Post Media Group will also change the way we create our content. Going forward, AOL will invest more heavily in our in-house editorial team and transition away from a reliance on freelance journalists. Journalists are the heart and soul of a media company, and our reporters and editors will be working closely with the tech group to produce compelling and engaging editorial content–including lots of video.

As part of this enhanced focus on quality journalism, we will be making new editorial hires in the HPMG as well as continuing to expand and grow Patch. With the acquisition of The Huffington Post and this renewed focus on editorial creation, we have increased the number of staff dedicated to content creation to over 1200 people and remain a net importer of journalists.

As a result of this new structure, close to 200 people will be leaving the AOL Media and tech groups in the US. These changes, among others, will be necessary as we execute our Media Group’s vision of creating real-time engagement and continuing to build a comprehensive source of compelling news, entertainment, information, opinion, and community. Specific elements of this integration are still being finalized, and we will communicate them to you as soon as we know more.

New Structure: Refocus in India

India is an important consumer and business market for AOL and we have a talented workforce covering many aspects of our business. As Kumar has announced to AOL India, as part of the new organizational structure, we have decided to focus our efforts on the India consumer market and move the business processing functions to scaled partners. India is gaining importance as a consumer market and we are actively working on products for that market and will be ramping up research and product engineering after the restructuring. A small number of project engineering functions will transition to Dulles and Dublin, while India starts to focus on Asia and India related consumer products and revenue.

Back office and support functions will transition to 3rd party partners and many current AOL India employees will transition along with those roles to continue to support core AOL functions with new partner companies. For our business and our scale, it makes business and financial sense to partner with other providers.

Overall, the structural changes in India will impact close to 700 jobs, with approximately 400 transitioning out of the company, and 300 transitioning to outsourcing partners to continue to work on the AOL business. AOL India has been a significant part of AOL, starting with call center outsourcing in 2002 and morphing into a business operations center. The employees of AOL India are talented, energetic, and hard-working – and we will be offering impacted people transition services. I would hope that India becomes a great future consumer market for AOL based on India-first product development.

Today is a day that represents a step toward the future, but also a day where change will cause an impact across our team. AOL remains in the middle of the disruption that the Internet is causing and we are starting to move from being a disrupted brand to a brand that is leading the disruption. The changes we are making are not easy, but they are the right changes for the long-term health of the company, the brand, and for our employees.

Impacted employees will be notified by 3 PM EST today and we will be scheduling an all-employee call at 5pm EST to answer any questions you may have. Please do not hesitate to reach out to me directly -TA

[Wired]

Below is the full press release:

AOL AGREES TO ACQUIRE THE HUFFINGTON POST

Acquisition Will Solidify AOL’s Strategy of Creating a Premier Content Network With Local, National and International Reach

Arianna Huffington To Lead Newly Formed The Huffington Post Media Group Which Will Integrate All Huffington Post and AOL Content, Including News, Tech, Women, Local, Multicultural, Entertainment, Video, Community, and More

The New Combined Media Group Will Reach 117 Million Americans and 270 Million Globally

Group Uniquely Positioned To Redefine the Future of Brand Advertising and Marketing For an Engaged and Influential Audience

New York, NY–February 7, 2011–AOL Inc. [NYSE:AOL] announced today that it has entered into a definitive agreement to acquire The Huffington Post, the influential and rapidly growing news, analysis, and lifestyle website founded in 2005, which now counts nearly 25 million unique monthly visitors*.

The transaction will create a premier global, national, local, and hyper-local content group for the digital age–leveraged across online, mobile, tablet, and video platforms. The combination of AOL’s infrastructure and scale with The Huffington Post’s pioneering approach to news and innovative community building among a broad and sophisticated audience will mark a seminal moment in the evolution of digital journalism and online engagement.

The new group will have a combined base of 117 million unique visitors a month in the United States and 270 million around the world**. Following the close of this transaction, AOL will accelerate its strategy to deliver a scaled and differentiated array of premium news, analysis, and entertainment produced by thousands of writers, editors, reporters, and videographers around the globe.

As part of the transaction, Arianna Huffington, The Huffington Post’s co-founder and editor-in-chief, will be named president and editor-in-chief of The Huffington Post Media Group, which will include all Huffington Post and AOL content, including Engadget, TechCrunch, Moviefone, MapQuest, Black Voices, PopEater, AOL Music, AOL Latino, AutoBlog, Patch, StyleList, and more.

“The acquisition of The Huffington Post will create a next-generation American media company with global reach that combines content, community, and social experiences for consumers,” said Tim Armstrong, Chairman and CEO of AOL. “Together, our companies will embrace the digital future and become a digital destination that delivers unmatched experiences for both consumers and advertisers.”

Armstrong continued, “Arianna is a singularly passionate and dedicated champion of innovative journalistic engagement, and a master of the art of using new media to illuminate, entertain and enhance the national conversation. Arianna is a remarkable person and she will continue to create remarkable outcomes for the combined company.”

“This is truly a merger of visions and a perfect fit for us,” said Huffington. “The Huffington Post will continue on the same path we have been on for the last six years–though now at light speed–by combining with AOL. Our readers will still be able to come to the Huffington Post at the same URL, and find all the same content they’ve grown to love, plus a lot more–more local, more tech, more entertainment, more finance, and lots more video. We are fusing a legendary and powerful new media brand with a vibrant, innovative news organization, known for its distinctive voice, a highly engaged audience, an expertise in community-building, and a track record for demystifying the news and putting flesh and blood on the data while drawing our audience into the conversation.”

Huffington continued, “By uniting AOL and The Huffington Post, we are creating one of the largest destinations for smart content and community on the Internet. And we intend to keep making it better and better.”

Kenneth Lerer, The Huffington Post’s Co-Founder and Chairman, said, “The Huffington Post team has created a potent brand with the proven track record of knowing how to grow traffic, inform and entertain its readers and build a one-of-a-kind online community. Add that to the powerful scale and resources of AOL and you have the perfect combination for today and the future. Together these two companies will be a premier online content provider. From local citizen reporting through AOL’s Patch, to The Huffington Post’s national reporting on politics, business and culture, consumers will have access to everything they want whenever they want it.”

AOL has agreed to purchase The Huffington Post for $315 million, approximately $300 million of which will be paid in cash funded from cash on hand. The Huffington Post is privately owned by its two cofounders, as well as a group of investors. The proposed transaction is subject to customary closing conditions, including receipt of government approvals. The boards of directors of each company and shareholders of The Huffington Post have approved the transaction. The transaction is expected to close in the late first- or early second-quarter 2011.

The Huffington Post over-indexes on educated, affluent users, reaching the key decision makers in C-suites around the globe. The Huffington Post speaks to this influential audience via a host of prominent voices on its group blog. Among those who have blogged on The Huffington Post are: President Barack Obama, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Larry Page, Diane Sawyer, Buzz Aldrin, Nora Ephron, Bill Maher, Madeleine Albright, Robert Redford, Katie Couric, Neil Young, Rahm Emanuel, Mia Farrow, Senator Russ Feingold, Senator Al Franken, Ari Emanuel, Harry Shearer, Senator John Kerry, Representative Nancy Pelosi, Madonna, Lawrence Summers, Jamie Lee Curtis, Ryan Reynolds, Craig Newmark, Alec Baldwin, Aaron Sorkin, Natalie Portman, Scarlett Johansson, Russell Simmons, Sean Penn, Bill Gates, Norman Lear, Charlie Rose, Elizabeth Warren, Tavis Smiley, Sheryl Sandberg, George Clooney, and former President Bill Clinton. And the audience speaks back, generating four million comments a month***.

The Huffington Post’s affluent, influential audience, that is growing at a rate of 22 percent (December 2009 vs. December 2010)****, when combined with AOL’s massive scale, video offerings and local expertise, will represent an incredibly desirable demographic for a broad range of advertising partners across the board.