The Director General, Sundar Pichai, told employees in an email on Friday that he was taking “full responsibility for the decisions that led us here”.
MO12345lemonde with Bloomberg
Alphabet, the mother company of Google, announced, Friday, January 20, the abolition of around 12,000 jobs, or more than 6 % of its global workforce, throughout the company. The Director General, Sundar Pichai, said in an email addressed to employees, that he was taking “full responsibility for the decisions that led us here”.
“Over the past two years, we have experienced periods of spectacular growth,” said Pichai. “To support and feed this growth, we have hired in a different economic context from that we know today,” he added, adding that the economic situation forced the company to reduce the workforce.
With these layoffs, Google joins a host of other major technology groups that have considerably reduced their activities in a context of hazardous global economy and rampant inflation. Meta – The Facebook, Instagram and Whatsapp parent company -, Twitter and Amazon have all reduced their workforce.
slowdown in digital advertising
Thanks to the resilience of its research activity, Google has been one of the technological companies that has the long time the discounts of major workforce, but the company is faced with a slowdown in digital advertising.
“This is an important moment to refocus our attention, reorganize our cost base and guide our talents and our capital towards our highest priorities”, writes Mr. Pichai in his email. He declared that the company had “a substantial opportunity before it” with artificial intelligence, a key investment area where Google faces a resurgence of competition.
In October, the company published results and a turnover lower than analysts’ expectations. The profit fell from 27 % to $ 13.9 billion compared to the previous year.
m. Pichai said that Alphabet would pay the employees concerned for sixteen weeks of dismissal compensation and six months of health benefits in the United States, the other regions receiving packages according to local laws and practices.