Google cuts nearly 200 sales, marketing jobs

Google is eliminating about 200 sales and marketing jobs, the company said in a blog post Thursday, blaming the move on overlapping areas and overhiring during a more optimistic time.

"Today we have informed Googlers that we plan to reduce the number of roles within our sales and marketing organizations by just under 200 globally," said Omid Kordestani, senior vice president of global sales and business development, in the blog post. "We did look at a number of different options but ultimately concluded that we had to restructure our organizations in order to improve our effectiveness and efficiency as a business."

Those losing their jobs will get severance and a crack at other openings at the Mountain View, Calif.-based company, which had 20,222 employees at the end of December.

"Google has grown very quickly in a very short period of time. When companies grow that quickly it's almost impossible to get everything right--and we certainly didn't. In some areas we've created overlapping organizations which not only duplicate effort but also complicate the decision-making process. That makes our teams less effective and efficient than they should be. In addition, we over-invested in some areas in preparation for the growth trends we were experiencing at the time," Kordestani said.

Google has shaken up even Silicon Valley with its fast growth in revenue, size, and ambition, but it's not immune to the global economic woes, and it's been trying to improve its profitability by cutting underperforming projects such as a print advertising initiative. Last year, Google started paring back its contractor workforce, and this year, Google cut 100 recruiters and 40 in a canceled radio ad effort.

[kevsmail]

I like Google products, but for some reason, I don't feel as sorry for these folks as I would at other tech companies.

[jake3373]

why, because they're rich? How would you feel if you were one of the people who no longer had a job? You may not even be able to afford internet, and you wouldn't be reading this at all!

[zextron]

Google just shows that it's a for profit organization like the so much hated Microsoft. Are they so scared that the salaries of 200 out of over 20.000 will bring them down?

Can?t they endure the loss during this crisis? I believe the blow will be much heavier on those losing their job. If they were different they would put people first but, as seen before (China and human rights), Google is all about money, like all other big corporations.

[renGek]

ummmm 200 employees out of 20,222....obviously its call house cleaning.
Every company have these employees. You must have worked with at least one or maybe you are that one who just don't pull their weight. I'm dealing with one now who was given a great opportunity to work but instead spends much of their time on places like match.com. When the economy is like this, its easier to get rid of the dead weights and cite restructuring as the reason. Much harder for them to get sued.

[knowles2]

And I am sure you are spending your time wisely on cnet.com.
May be you should be setting an example for your employees.

[hippypink]

They dont really need to fire anyone, because remember, they average $1,000,000 in revenue per employee there, annually.

http://monkeynostrils.blogspot.com