Alphabet’s Google recently announced a workforce reduction, impacting multiple teams and prompting the departure of Fitbit co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman.
The tech giant, seeking increased efficiency and a heightened focus on strategic priorities, confirmed the elimination of several hundred jobs across the company late Wednesday night.
In a statement to CNBC, a Google spokesperson revealed that the restructuring primarily targets the Devices & Services teams responsible for Pixel, Nest, and Fitbit hardware. The changes, communicated to employees and later confirmed in a statement to 9to5Google, extend across hardware and central engineering teams, affecting Google Assistant and other areas.
Alphabet’s shares, traded as GOOGL.O, closed down slightly less than 1% on Thursday following the announcement. This move represents Google’s latest effort to curtail the headcount growth experienced during the pandemic, which saw a 6% reduction in its full-time employees last January.
The Google job cuts pointed to the company’s vision to realign resources toward its core product priorities. The company emphasised its ongoing organisational changes aimed at efficiency and global role eliminations throughout the second half of 2023. The impacted teams include the Voice Assistant unit, hardware responsible for Pixel, Nest, and Fitbit, and a substantial number within the augmented reality (AR) team.
Despite Google’s $2.1 billion acquisition of Fitbit in 2021, it continues to pursue its Pixel Watch, competing with Fitbit’s offerings and Apple Watch. The company’s strategic focus has shifted towards artificial intelligence, evident in recent product launches such as the chatbot Bard and the language model Gemini, in a bid to keep pace with rivals like Microsoft and Amazon.
However, the reorganisation hasn’t been without criticism. Google faced scrutiny for significant cuts to diversity, equity, and inclusion programs in the past year, according to CNBC. The Alphabet Workers Union expressed disappointment, deeming the layoffs “needless” in a statement on X (formerly Twitter), underlining their commitment to job security and product development.
The Fitbit co-founder, James Park, who remained with Google after the acquisition, played a key role in announcing the Pixel Watch and Pixel Watch 2. The current reorganisation, resulting in the elimination of several hundred roles, notably affects the Devices & Services teams, with a particular emphasis on the augmented reality hardware team.
As part of the Google job cuts, the company noted that affected employees will have the opportunity to apply for open roles within the company, accompanied by the customary support provided during such transitions. This move highlights Google’s change from developing its AR hardware, to opting for an original equipment manufacturer (OEM)-partnership model.
