Search form

Google Shedding 300 DoubleClick Employees

THE NEW YORK TIMES is reporting that Google will cut about 300 jobs from the American operations of DoubleClick, the ad tech company it acquired last month for $3.1 billion.

DoubleClick has about 1,500 employees worldwide, and an American force of around 1,200. Google's CEO Eric E. Schmidt has suggested there might be job cuts overseas at a later date.

In a statement, the company said: "Since our acquisition of DoubleClick closed on March 11, we have been working to match and align DoubleClick employees in the U.S. with our organizational plan for the business. As with many mergers, this review has resulted in a reduction in headcount at the acquired company."

This is the first major layoffs in Google's history, who employs around 16,800 employees worldwide and added more than 6,100 workers in 2007.

DoubleClick employees were being laid off on Wednesday, and others will be offered transitional roles.

Google's director for DoubleClick integration, Tom Phillips, said in the official Google blog that they would be selling the Performics Search Marketing. The DoubleClick unit helps marketers place ads on search engines, including those owned by Google and main rivals Yahoo and Microsoft.

"It's clear to us that we do not want to be in the search engine marketing business. Maintaining objectivity in both search and advertising is paramount to Google's mission and core to the trust we ask from our users. For this reason, we plan to sell the Performics search marketing business to a third party. We believe this will allow us to maintain objectivity and the search marketing business to continue to grow and innovate and serve its customers. While we have not yet identified a buyer, we’ve received preliminary interest from a number of our current partners. Search Marketing will continue to run as a separate entity until the division is sold," Phillips wrote.