Google Faces Layoff Rumors Amid Potential Chrome Sale

Regulatory pressures within the U.S. and different international locations accusing Google of monopolizing the web search market have fueled discussions concerning the potential sale of Chrome, elevating issues amongst staff. Experiences on the nameless discussion board Team Blind recommend this transfer may set off mass layoffs in early 2025, with about 1,200 staff reportedly already let go earlier than Christmas.

A Staff Blind consumer highlighted potential indicators of a hiring freeze and upcoming layoffs, prompting responses from self-identified Google staff confirming January dismissals. Hypothesis signifies that lower-paid staff, whose hiring elevated by 8-10% in 2024, are the most certainly to be affected.

Including to those rumors, Alphabet’s CFO, Anat Ashkenazi, said throughout a Q3 earnings name that the corporate is working to scale back prices by simplifying operations, leveraging synthetic intelligence (AI). This means Google might plan to interchange sure roles with AI options, regardless of requiring important investments over the following few years.

Experiences additionally emerged of current layoffs in Google Cloud Gross sales, with roughly 1,200 staff allegedly dismissed. If true, this is able to mark the start of a brand new wave of job cuts at Google, following the large-scale layoffs in January 2023, when 12,000 staff have been let go globally.

Whereas no official affirmation hyperlinks these layoffs to Chrome’s potential sale, the state of affairs underscores rising tensions inside Google because it navigates regulatory challenges and operational restructuring. Efforts to halt the Chrome sale, together with anticipated interference from Donald Trump, seem unlikely, as Choose Amit Mehta is anticipated to reject the previous president’s involvement within the case.

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