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AOL Closes In Oklahoma City
| | AOL - 12/2/2006 | | |
Daily Oklahoman, The (KRT) Via Thomson Dialog NewsEdge) Dec. 2--America Online pulled the plug on its Oklahoma City call center because of "shifting business strategies," an AOL spokesman said Friday.
AOL executives told the 900 employees at its Shepherd Mall location early Friday that the center will close at the end of January.
"In a milestone announcement we made in August, (we said) that we are providing many of our services to users for free," AOL spokesman Nicholas Graham said. "Then obviously we continue to run and maintain an active member base. But a lot of our business model and business strategy shifted in August."
"A lot of the need for member services has to be adjusted to take into account a lower call volume."
Graham described AOL membership base as "evolving," but parent company Time Warner has reported that the subscriber base has declined from a high of 29 million subscribers in the late 1990s to 15.2 million U.S. subscribers in the third quarter of 2006.
Many of those are broadband users whose AOL subscriptions now cost them nothing.
AOL closing of the center has been rumored for months, and it apparently is leaving on good terms with state and local officials.
Graham said AOL is working hard to find a new call center operator to occupy its Shepherd Mall location, and that some of its employees might find work there if a deal is struck.
"It may not come next week, it may not come next month, but it's something we are working toward," Graham said.
Employees will receive a severance package that includes salary, benefits and outplacement services that vary by tenure and position, Graham said.
AOL Oklahoma City call center opened in 1996 and was one of the first operated by the company as its subscriber base grew rapidly.
AOL signed a quality jobs contract with the state, which provided a rebate of a percentage of its payroll as it added promised employees.
"They did have a contract and did fulfill their commitment in 2004," said Sandy Pratt, director of business location for the Oklahoma Department of Commerce. "They've been a good employer, a quality employer. A 10-year time frame is a real positive and speaks well for our work force."
The Oklahoma City area boasts 32 call centers employing about 19,000 people.
More than 70 call centers are located throughout the state, according to information provided by the Department of Commerce.
Using a conservative estimate of the AOL center's hourly wage, Dauffenbach estimated that the city will lose at least $27 million in payroll plus indirect impacts.
However, the state economy has weathered well the rash of manufacturing and what he called "special situation" layoffs such as the AOL closing, he said.
"It's doing very surprisingly well," Dauffenbach said. "I look at our tax receipts, and we are having growth in the economy."
For workers who are finding out just before the holidays that their employer is going away, that economy doesn't look so bright.
An AOL employee who would not give her name described the atmosphere at the center Friday as "sad, quiet" with tight security.
"Everybody is going to work as normal and do as good a job as they have been doing," she said. "They have to or they will get fired and won't get paid nothing. And that is sad."
Copyright (c) 2006, The Daily Oklahoman
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.
| | | | Number of Employees: | 900 | | Square Footage: | 100,00 | | | | Contact Name: | Nicholas Graham | | Contact Phone: | NA | | Contact Email: | NA | | Web Address: | NA | | City: | Oklahoma City | | State: | Oklahoma | | Country: | US | | |
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