According to WSJ.com AOL has finally confirmed it is to cut up to 5,000 jobs ,or a quarter of its global work force, within six months as the company restructures its business to draw more online advertising dollars.

The announcement, which was well trailled, came a day after the Time Warner Inc. unit said it would no longer charge high-speed Internet customers for email and other services.

An unknown number of European employees will still have jobs but with a different company as AOL looks to shed its Internet access businesses in France, Germany and the U.K. AOL currently has 3,000 access employees in Europe.”