Google’s parent company, Alphabet Inc (GOOGL.O) has announced that it is cutting about 12,000 jobs, or 6% of its workforce, in a staff memo released on Friday.
Sundar Pichai, Alphabet’s chief executive officer (CEO), disclosed this in the memo sent to employees via email on Friday, Jan. 20.0
In a blog post on Friday, Alphabet Incorp. Chief Executive Officer, Sundar Pichai, said the company has decided to reduce its workforce by approximately 12,000 roles.
“We’ve already sent a separate email to employees in the US who are affected. In other countries, this process will take longer due to local laws and practices.
“This will mean saying goodbye to some incredibly talented people we worked hard to hire and have loved working with. I’m deeply sorry for that. The fact that these changes will impact the lives of Googlers weighs heavily on me, and I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here,” Mr Pichai said.
Over the past two years, he said the company has seen periods of dramatic growth.
“I am confident about the huge opportunity in front of us thanks to the strength of our mission, the value of our products and services, and our early investments in AI.
“fully capture it, we’ll need to make tough choices. So, we’ve undertaken a rigorous review across product areas and functions to ensure that our people and roles are aligned with our highest priorities as a company. The roles we’re eliminating reflect the outcome of that review. They cut across Alphabet, product areas, functions, levels and regions,” he said.
He noted that the layoff is an important moment to sharpen the company’s focus, re-engineer its cost base, and direct talent and capital to the company’s highest priorities.
The company had in its earnings report last October announced revenue of $69 billion and profit of $13.9 billion, marking growing revenue (up from $65.1 billion the previous year) but shrinking profits (down from $18.9 billion the same quarter in 2021).
Google is the latest technology company to lay off its employees in a new wave of massive layoffs in the tech industry in which employees of Twitter, Facebook, Amazon, IT group Salesforce and Microsoft have been affected.
