AOL, the online division of Time Warner Inc., said on Thursday that it will cut nearly 5000 jobs over the course of the next six months in efforts to restructure.

The cuts represent about 26 percent of its 19,000 employee workforce.

At a company meeting this morning, the company said in a statement, Jon Miller [AOL CEO]told AOL's worldwide work force of 19,000 people that within six months, it was likely that around 5,000 employees would no longer be with the company.

The company has faced increasing pressure from investors to restructure the company to raise profitability.

In May, Time Warner's CEO Richard Parsons pledged to lower expenses over the next two years after being pressured by investor Carl Icahn. Parsons cut AOL's workforce by 700 last year and then eliminated 1700 jobs at other divisions leading up to this event. Nearly 1300 of those cuts were in April.

AOL is also moving away from the subscription based service they pioneered years ago. On Wednesday they said they will move to a risky strategy that relies on advertising instead of subscriptions to support the company.

“They are trying to turn themselves into a portal like Google or Yahoo,” Joseph Bonner, an Argus Researcher told IBTimes in May. I can’t say their strategy is gaining much traction.

Carl icahn Time Warner Jobs