San Francisco, January 10, 2024, The Europe Today: On Wednesday, Google announced a substantial workforce reduction, underscoring the company’s ongoing efforts to streamline operations and control expenses. The layoffs will affect several teams within the organization, including the Voice Assistant unit and the hardware team responsible for Pixel, Nest, and Fitbit.
Notably, co-founders James Park and Eric Friedman of Fitbit will also depart from the company.
The augmented reality (AR) team is facing significant downsizing, and numerous roles within Google’s central engineering team are also slated for elimination. These strategic adjustments reflect Google’s commitment to optimizing its structure and resources in the face of evolving business priorities.
In 2021, Google acquired Fitbit for $2.1 billion, a move indicative of its foray into the health and fitness tracking market. Despite this acquisition, Google has persisted in releasing new iterations of its Pixel Watch, a direct competitor to both Fitbit’s offerings and the Apple Watch.
However, during the second half of 2023, Google underwent a series of strategic adjustments aimed at enhancing efficiency, improving collaboration, and aligning resources with key product priorities across various teams.
The company acknowledges that some of these changes involve global role eliminations, reflecting a commitment to optimizing its organizational structure and resource allocation for sustained competitiveness in the dynamic tech landscape.
