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The 1,200 Microsoft sales staffers offered jobs at AOL are worried the roles won't be around for long

Tim Armstrong
Tim Armstrong

(Business Insider Video) AOL CEO Tim Armstrong.

As part of the deal struck earlier this week between Microsoft and AOL that will see the former company hand its display advertising sales business over to the latter, AOL has said it will offer jobs to 1,200 employees in Microsoft's Advertising division.

But, according to AdExchanger, Microsoft employees are skeptical those jobs will be around for long because there will inevitably be a duplication of roles.

A mid-level employee at Microsoft told AdExchanger "I don't think they want all of us," adding: "It's hard to imagine that them with our bloated cost structure is any better than us with our bloated cost structure. They're not going to let everyone go, but they're going to have to let people go."

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A person close to the company said: "AOL's not going to be able to keep 1,200 people. You don't need two sales forces. If you and I were both calling on AmEx, who's calling now?"

As AdExchanger notes, AOL CEO Tim Armstrong has instructed a number of layoffs in his time at the company. In 2010 the company cut 1,000 jobs, while 1,100 agreed to take voluntary redundancies. Then in 2014 it cut hundreds of jobs in its Patch local news business. And just this year, the company cut around 150 roles within its advertising sales teams, and consolidated some of its websites.

An AOL spokesperson e-mailed Business Insider this statement: "AOL is looking to transition Microsoft’s sales and trade marketing employees in the 9 markets to our business. Microsoft is full of great talent and we are excited to continue to build the number one advertising services company in the world. Microsoft and AOL will operate as two separate entities for now, with the goal of integrating Microsoft employees into our sales structure by end of the year. This does not at all change our focus on moving more to automation as the market continues to transform. This transition is going to take quite some time, different markets at different times."

AOL began dishing out offer letters to Microsoft staff just days after the announcement. AdExchanger notes that some of the offers were "generous," including raises a little higher than the average Microsoft annual pay rise.

US employees have been given 10 days to consider their offers, and, if they accept, they will become AOL employees as of July 16, according to AdExchanger's sources.

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