‘Feeling Lucky?’ Didn’t Think So …
Google announced the first major layoffs in its 10-year history Wednesday - at DoubleClick, the online advertising company it bought last month for $3.24 billion. About 300 of DoubleClick’s 1,200 U.S. employees were sacked or reassigned to “transitional” roles. “As with many mergers, this review has resulted in a reduction in headcount at the acquired company,” a Google spokesman explained. “We are confident that our combined organizational structure, along with the skills and experience of our new colleagues, will allow us to continue to offer great products and services to our customers.”
Well, at least they’re describing it as “a reduction in headcount” and not a “rightsizing,” “resource realignment” or “shifting of jobs to lower-cost areas” …
In addition to releasing nearly a quarter of DoubleClick’s workforce back into the wild, Google is selling off the company’s Performics search marketing business. Performics facilitates ad placement within Google’s search results, so unloading it should put to rest concerns about potential conflicts of interest. “It is clear to us that we do not want to be in the search engine marketing business,” Tom Phillips, the Google director overseeing the DoubleClick integration (and former Spy magazine publisher), wrote in a post to the Google Blog. “Maintaining objectivity in both search and advertising is paramount to our mission and core to the trust we ask from our users.”
