Google is laying off around 1,000 employees, including members of hardware teams related to Fitbit, Nest and the company’s augmented reality (AR) division. The Mountain View firm has confirmed this measure to The Verge claiming that these are “changes to be more efficient and work better.”
Google, however, has not confirmed the number of layoffs that will begin this week. We know that James Park and Eric Friedmanco-founders of Fitbit and who joined the company after purchasing their company in 2019, They will leave Google as part of this measure. So will other Fitbit leaders and employees, making the division in charge of wearables of the brand disappears within Google.
As the portal has been able to know 9to5Googlethe company’s objective is unify the different divisions dedicated to hardware within the company. Until now, Google had different teams for the design, software, user interface, etc., areas of the Pixel, Nest and Fitbit brands. This meant that the company had a leader in each of these departments. With the layoffs, what Google is doing is having only one person responsible for, for example, the hardware area of both Pixel, Nest and Fitbit.
Layoffs in AR division
The company has also confirmed that the majority of layoffs are occurring in the 1P AR area, aimed at creating augmented reality products and services. Google, however, confirms that although they will be letting go of several of their employees, remain committed “to other AR initiativessuch as AR experiences in our products and product partnerships.”
Despite the bad news, it is likely that this measure allow Google to create more unified products. And, therefore, improve the hardware and software experience with the company’s different devices. We must also keep in mind that about 1,000 people is an insignificant number for a company like Google. It has a total of 182,381 employees as of September 2023, indicates The Verge.
Google is not the only one
Google, in addition, It is not the only technology company that has confirmed layoffs. In fact, we have been seeing for months how companies like Spotify, Amazon, Meta or Microsoft are laying off employees as part of strategies to save costs and be more efficient.
Amazon is another of the companies that has announced layoffs for 2024, including 500 employees of Twitch (35% of the workforce), as well as hundreds of employees of Prime Video and MGM Studios, an American film production and distribution company owned by Amazon, around the world.
Spotify has also confirmed that it will lay off 1,500 people of its 9,000 current employees worldwide. That is, it will dispense with 17% of its staff. Daniel Ek, CEO of the streaming music company, confirmed that this decision is due to “future challenges”and confessed that he thought about carrying out small numbers of layoffs throughout 2024 and 2025. However, he stated that he rejected the idea when he realized that a mass layoff was the best way to achieve the company’s objectives.