Alphabet’s Google has commenced another round of layoffs, with hundreds of staff reportedly being made redundant.
The Information, citing a person with direct knowledge of the situation, reported on Thursday that after offering voluntary redundancy (aka buyout offers) in January, Google has now laid off hundreds of employees in its ‘platforms and devices’ unit.
Google’s platforms and devices division is said to include a number of widely recognised softwqre products, including Android, Chrome browser, Chrome OS, Google Photos, as well as hardware products such as Pixel, Fitbit, and Nest.
Image credit Google
Google layoffs
Google confirmed the layoffs in a statement to the Information.
“Since combining the platforms and devices teams last year, we’ve focused on becoming more nimble and operating more effectively and this included making some job reductions in addition to the voluntary exit program that we offered in January,” a Google spokesperson told The Information.
Google’s Platforms & Devices division is a relatively large unit, and was formed as recently as April 2024, when Google merged its Platforms & Ecosystems and Devices & Services units.
This latest tranche of layoffs comes after Google in February began offering staff in its ‘People Operations’ (aka Human Resources or HR) division so called buyout offers.
Days earlier Google had reportedly made layoffs in its cloud division.
The exact numbers of layoffs in February were not revealed.
These layoffs come after Alphabet had in February disappointed investors when it revealed in its Q4 and year-end financials that cloud growth was stalling, coupled with a big capital-spending plan to accelerate its AI-investment strategy.
At the time Google’s finance chief Anat Ashkenazi reportedly stated that one of her top priorities would be to drive more cost-cutting as Google expands its spending on AI infrastructure in 2025.
Previous layoffs
Google senior management have been questioned by staff during all-hands meeting last year, about cost cutting, layoffs and “morale” issues at the firm.
In May 2024 Google had laid off at least 200 employees from its “Core” organisation, which included key teams and engineering talent, with some of the roles being outsourced to Mexico and India.
It should be remembered Google had been cutting thousands of jobs since early 2023.
In January 2023 for example Alphabet had announced that it would cut 12,000 jobs worldwide, or roughly 6 percent of its workforce.
In June 2023 it also emerged that Google was axing staff in its highly popular mapping service Waze, which it had acquired for $1.3 billion back in 2013.
In September 2023 Google cut hundreds of jobs in its global recruiting team as part of a broader pullback in hiring over the next several quarters.
In January 2024 CEO Sundar Pichai warned staff to expect more job losses as the firm “will be investing in our big priorities this year.”
