While Google has long been seen as one of Silicon Valley's best employers, the company has completely changed its strategy in recent years. In 2023, Google was already making a lot of noise with a massive layoff of 12,000 employees, corresponding to 6.4% of its workforce at the time.
At the time, the announcement was not well received. welcomed by the company's employees, especially since 150,000 jobs had been cut at Meta, Amazon, Microsoft, and others in 2022.
With some budget cuts that Google quietly announced in recent months on Google Cloud, Google Assistant, and other services, The Information's article from April 11 is much more worrying...
Android, Pixel and Google Chrome heavily impacted with hundreds of layoffs
While the newspaper's information does not allow us to identify the exact number of layoffs at Google, journalist Erin Woo announced that around a hundred people would be affected.
Among the teams affected by this tragic news, we can count on the Android operating system, Pixel smartphones, and the Google Chrome browser is directly affected. According to Reuters information on this subject, this decision would have been taken to make the company more agile.
However, with the lawsuits currently underway that could force Google to By reselling Google Chrome, the company may be making a strategic move. Indeed, given the uncertainty surrounding the future of Google Chrome, the decision to slow down on browser developments is clearly justified.
On the other hand, no one can yet imagine the future impacts on the smartphone market for Google.
Google backtracks on hiring
These layoffs at Google are not viewed favorably in the tech world, especially in the current economic climate, which remains very tense. Indeed, Donald Trump's latest announcements regarding increased customs tariffs have caused a lot of concern among GAFAM.
But, beyond these layoffs, Google could have made this decision to compensate for the company's latest hires. At the end of 2024, Google had 183,323 employees according to The Information, 800 more people than last year.
With a new CFO, Anat Ashkenazi, who arrived at the company a few months ago, could Google be in the process of backtracking? While the coming months should allow us to learn more, her predecessor Ruth Porat had already declared her desire to continue budget cuts.
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