Recently fired blogging pressman Ed Padgett had some interest commentary regarding the layoffs:

“Those folks each got $20,000 in severance,” claims Padgett about the suicides.

Padgett also comments on how he and others were accused of planning a sabotage at LA Times:

“Two of the fellows were let go two weeks early because they were worried about sabotage. They’re so paranoid, because it’s not just my department — it includes editorial.”

Reportedly, the layoffs came just before the company decided to give huge bonuses to management at the organization.

Leena Rao, who actually works for AOL now that it’s been bought TechCrunch, confirmed some rough figures earlier this morning.  She wrote, “AOL will be letting go a little over 200 U.S. employees, around 120 of which are editorial staffers.  The remaining employees that are being let go also work in AOL’s media business but in other operations (technology, product).”

Then, as rumors suggested, it turns out that the other employees targeted by these layoffs live in India.  Rao reported, “In total, India’s casualties are above 700 employees.  In India, AOL will be letting go around 400 employees and transitioning around approximately 300 employees to become contractors.”

Let’s hope that last detail softens the blow a bit.

Anyway, all this activity seems to have impressed investors.  At the moment, AOL’s stock is up 0.41 percent, even as the Dow is down 1.31 percent and the Nasdaq is down 1.52 percent.

The latest round of layoffs may make AOL a more profitable company (and safer place to work) as intended, then.

To first discuss who’s supposed to be safe: employees of Engadget and TechCrunch should all be left alone, as Arianna Huffington said in an interview with Beet.TV that she “won’t mess” with them.

Also, if it’s of any comfort to anyone, Armstrong, who said at the PaidContent 2011 Conference that his father had once been laid off, did at least promise, “[W]e’ll do it thoughtfully.”

As for some of the people who could be at greatest risk, the Times of India reported this morning, “There is a buzz that AOL India is about to lay off people.  Some say the scale of layoffs would be substantial.”

Not much else is known for sure.  AOL’s supposed to see $20 million in savings thanks to the acquisition, but the company hasn’t discussed the details of where all that money will come from.

If we can confirm how many people or which departments will be affected, we’ll be sure to report those facts later.

Obviously, that’s not great news for those people, and it may not be a good sign for Yahoo, either.  Many companies are expanding, not contracting, as the economy recovers.

A related, key fact: Google in particular hasn’t shown any signs of slowing down.  Remember that the search giant announced two acquisitions today and also indicated it would be hiring thousands of employees all over the world.

Yahoo does have an explanation for this move, however.  The company said in a statement, "The personnel changes we are making are part of our ongoing strategy to best position Yahoo for revenue growth and margin expansion and to support our strategy to deliver differentiated products and experiences to the marketplace.  We’ll continue to hire on a global basis to support our key priorities."

Also, to clarify (a little) about how many employees are losing their jobs, Yahoo said, "Today’s action impacts approximately 1 percent of the global employee base."

Check back at WebProNews later to see how Yahoo performed in the fourth quarter of last year.

While it’s hard to imagine that half of MySpace’s workforce contributed absolutely nothing, and it’s extra suspicious that Jones made his announcement at a time when the Verizon/iPhone hoopla was distracting everyone, the CEO did try to indicate that MySpace is in good shape now.

Jones explained in a statement, "Today’s tough but necessary changes were taken in order to provide the company with a clear path for sustained growth and profitability.  These changes were purely driven by issues related to our legacy business and in no way reflect the performance of the new MySpace."

He later added, "[T]he new MySpace is trending positively and the good news is we have already seen an uptick in returning and new users.  Since the worldwide rollout of the new MySpace, there have been more than 3.3m new profiles created."

The layoffs will make running MySpace a less expensive proposition for News Corp., in any event, and if News Corp. attempts to sell the property (as some rumors have indicated), they also could help convince potential buyers to step forward.

Good luck to the affected individuals.

There’s not much more to tell at this point.  Jessica E. Vascellaro and Russell Adams just wrote, "One person familiar with the matter said the site could lay off between a third and a half of its roughly 1,100 employees.  Another person said the moves could be announced as soon as this month."

Harsh as that may sound, the layoffs would arguably represent a less drastic measure than other possibilities, as well.  Consider that, less than two months ago, News Corp.’s COO said MySpace’s losses "are not acceptable or sustainable."  Talk of a sale resulted, but no potential buyers came forward.

Talk of a shutdown began to circulate, too, with not many people coming to MySpace’s defense.

Credit for first reporting the likelihood of another major round of layoffs at MySpace goes to Liz Gannes, in any event.

We’ll be sure to keep an eye on the situation.

A form the company filed with the SEC explained, "In connection with the worldwide workforce reduction, the Company expects to incur pre-tax cash charges of $33 million to $38 million for severance pay expenses and related cash expenditures."  That should add up to some very nice exit packages.

Then Yahoo also shared something to help take the bite out of things for investors.  The form continued, "The estimated pre-tax cash charges are expected to be offset by a $4 million to $6 million credit related to stock-based compensation expense reversals."

Anyway, most of the severance charges should show up on paper during the fourth quarter of this year, and Yahoo will finish officially recognizing them before the end of the first quarter of 2011.

A quick note regarding the company’s short-term performance: Yahoo’s stock is down 0.98 percent this morning, which puts it in significantly worse shape than the Dow (down 0.36 percent) and Nasdaq (down 0.20 percent).

Indeed, it’s almost certain at this point that layoffs will occur.  The big question is how many people will be affected.  Michael Arrington, who broke the story, claimed that 20 percent of Yahoo’s employees – or around 2,500 individuals – will get cut, and he stuck by that figure even after Yahoo called it "misleading and inaccurate."

Kara Swisher, meanwhile, wrote, "[T]he layoffs . . . will be closer to 10 percent and be almost completely centered on the product organization under Chief Product Officer Blake Irving, said sources close to the situation. . . .  That would mean layoffs of about 650, since that part of Yahoo has about 6,500 employees."

So we’ll see what happens.

Either way, though, it looks like the company is preparing to slim down quite a bit.  And although that should save Yahoo some money, investors don’t appear too excited about the idea, given that Yahoo’s stock has fallen 1.58 percent so far today.

In comparison, the Dow and Nasdaq are only down 0.79 percent and 1.03 percent, respectively.

Todd Bishop wrote late last night (or early this morning, to those of us a few time zones east of Seattle and Redmond), "We’re hearing from unofficial but reliable sources tonight that Microsoft is poised to make additional job cuts this week . . ."

As for the size of the cuts, Bishop then continued, "This latest round of layoffs is expected to be noticeably smaller than the first two — numbering in the hundreds but totaling less than 1,000 overall."

Still, morale among Microsoft’s employees isn’t likely to get much of a boost as a result.  Since many analysts believed that both the economy and the company were doing better these days (the Dow’s risen 6.21 percent in the past three months, while Microsoft’s stock has gained a whopping 18.05 percent), they may have expected the era of layoffs to be over.

Perhaps Google’s Matt Cutts should extend to some Microsoft engineers the same job offers he lobbed in Yahoo’s direction.

UPDATE: The elimination of 800 jobs has been confirmed.

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The move comes after an announcement last week that the social networking site was cutting its staff by nearly 30 percent.

MySpace’s international staff will be cut from 450 employees to about 150 with offices in London, Berlin, and Sydney becoming the regional hubs for the company’s international operations.

Offices in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, France, India, Italy, Mexico, Russia, Sweden, and Spain are under review for possible restructuring. MySpace China, which is locally owned and operated, and MySpace’s joint venture in Japan would not be affected by the proposed plan.

"With roughly half of MySpace’s total user base coming from outside the U.S., maintaining productive and efficient operations in our international markets is important to users worldwide and our immediate financial strength," said MySpace Chief Executive Officer Owen Van Natta.

"As we conducted our review of the company, it was clear that internationally, just as in the U.S., MySpace’s staffing had become too big and cumbersome to be sustainable in current market conditions. Today’s proposed changes are designed to transform and refine our international growth strategy."

MySpace has been surpassed by Facebook on a global level in terms of users and in May it took a small lead over MySpace in the U.S., according to comScore.