Is AOL’s AIM service on the chopping block?

The New York Times says AOL is laying off a modest 100 employees, which is not surprising news for a company that is changing its whole model of business. One particular area, however, caught my eye:

The AOL Instant Messenger group took the deepest cut so far. A former AOL employee said the group was “eviscerated and now only consists of support staff.” This person, who asked not to be named because they were not allowed to speak publicly about the company, added that “nearly all of the West Coast tech team has been killed.”

That does n0t sound like a business with a future. Only “support staff” means no development/security/improvements…or future.

AIM, through iChat/Adium/Messages on Mac and Verbs/etc on iOS, is still an important service that I use. I still have a network of contacts that I communicate with almost exclusively through AIM.

I have been passively trying to migrate those contacts either to iMessage or Google Talk. However, it sounds like I should hurry.