- According to an internal memo seen by CNBC, Google's chief financial officer, Ruth Porat, told the company's finance team that there would be a restructuring, including group reassignments and layoffs.
- The layoffs will affect some employees in the United States and abroad.
- Porat also said the company will use a “hub” model to locate finance teams in countries such as India and Mexico.
Alphabet Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said in a memo Wednesday that Google is restructuring its financial organization, including layoffs and reassignments, as it dedicates resources to prioritizing investments in artificial intelligence. said.
“The tech industry is in the midst of an incredible platform shift under Al,” Porat wrote in a memo to finance employees obtained by CNBC. “As a company, this means we have the opportunity to make products more useful for billions of users and deliver faster solutions to our customers, but at the same time It also means we have to collectively make tough decisions, such as whether to work on our top priority areas. ”
The layoffs follow a broader effort by Google to reallocate employees and resources to support further investments in new technologies such as AI as advertising growth slows. CEO Sundar Pichai told employees in January that further job cuts were likely in 2024, but did not specify which teams would be affected. .
Porat noted that the restructuring will impact domestic and international finance teams, including Asia Pacific, Europe, the Middle East and Africa.
Porat also wrote that the company would create “hubs” for more centralized operations in locations such as Bangalore, Mexico City, Dublin, Chicago and Atlanta. He noted that the company plans to maintain a significant presence in the San Francisco Bay Area.
“For the past year, we have been talking about creating vibrant, culturally strong Finnougler hubs around the world,” Porat wrote. “This strategy makes us a more efficient organization and allows us to work 24 hours a day while respecting Fin'ooglers' work hours.”
Fin'oogler is Google's term for finance employees.
“We are sad to say goodbye to our talented teammates and friends who we hold dear. We know this change will be difficult,” Porat wrote at the end of his note.
“As we have said, we are investing responsibly in our biggest priorities and important opportunities going forward,” a Google spokesperson told CNBC in an email. “To best position us for these opportunities, in late 2023 and into 2024, we will make changes, remove layers and help many of our teams work more efficiently and better. We aligned our resources to our biggest product priorities.”
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