All those AOL'ers who were laid off during 2008-2010 must be so glad the money saved on the reduced headcount payroll went to investments such as this.
Wrong way of thinking about it. A company like AOL does need to invest in modernizing their business model somehow to stay relevant. The Bebo buy was rather poor, but the general idea of rebuilding AOL into something else is a good plan. If they don't remake AOL into something else, the layoffs will keep coming as the company dies a slow death.