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Google's cost-cutting drive leads to layoffs in Android, Pixel, and Chrome teams: Report
The latest layoff is part of the company's restructuring effort that began last year when Google merged Android and Chrome teams under the Pixel and Devices group
“AI Overviews now has over 2 billion monthly users across more than 200 countries and territories and 40 languages,” Pichai said, noting that the features are prompting users to search more frequently, especially among younger audiences.
Search engine giant Google has reportedly laid off hundreds of employees, working on its Android software and Pixel phones and Chrome browser, according to a report by The Information.
Notably, the search engine giant introduced a voluntary severance program for employees in the same division earlier this year.
The voluntary exit program applies to employees working on several Google products and services, including Android, Chrome & ChromeOS, Pixel, Fitbit, Google One, Google Photos, and Nest.
The latest layoff is part of the company's restructuring effort that began last year when Google merged Android and Chrome teams under the Pixel and Devices group. At that time, under the leadership of Rick Osterloh, the combined unit had more than 25,000 employees.
In February this year, Google told staffers in "People Operations" and cloud organizations to cut employees. The company's cost-cutting drive has come as Google expands its spending on AI structure in 2025.
As per the HR buyouts, Level 4 and Level 5 employees (mid-to-senior level employees) would receive a severance of 14 weeks of salary and one additional week for every full year of service.
According to the cnbc.com, the cloud layoffs affected the unit’s sales operations, customer experience, and go-to-market teams. Cloud is one of the high-growth business units of Alphabet. The cloud unit’s revenue increased 30% for the fourth quarter year-on-year.
Meanwhile, Google employees have been circulating an internal petition titled "job security" in view of the cost-cutting drive, according to a report by cnbc.com. More than 1,250 employees signed the petition, the report mentioned. The employees have called on the company's leadership to not 'force' low-performance reviews to justify layoffs.
The employees in their position have asked for guaranteed severance equivalent to what laid-off employees were offered in January 2023.
At that time, Google laid off 12,000 employees and the severance package included 16 weeks salary plus two weeks for every additional year employees worked at that company.
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