Lagatar24 Desk
New Delhi, Jan 20: Google parent company Alphabet Inc has announced plans to cut 12,000 jobs or 6 per cent of the workforce worldwide, said its chief executive in a staff memo on Friday.
The layoffs represent the latest to shake the tech industry and come days after rival Microsoft Corp announced it would lay off 10,000 of its employees.
Alphabet’s CEO Sundar Pichai said in an email to his employees that he takes ‘full responsibility’ for the decisions they have made.
“Googlers, I have some difficult news to share. We have decided to reduce our workforce by approximately 12,000 roles. We’ve already sent a separate email to employees in the US who are affected. This will mean saying goodbye to some incredibly talented people we worked hard to hire and have loved working with. I’m deeply sorry for that. I take full responsibility for the decisions that led us here. Over the past two years, we’ve seen periods of dramatic growth. To match and fuel that growth, we hired for a different economic reality than the one we face today,” said Pichai in his letter to his employees.”
“These are key moments to sharpen our focus, rebuild our cost base, and direct our talent and capital to our top priorities,” he added.
He said the company has a huge opportunity in artificial intelligence, a key investment area that Google has faced increased competition in recent times.
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With the layoffs, Google joins several other tech giants that have drastically scaled back their operations amid a slow global economy and rising inflation. Microsoft, Meta Platforms, Twitter and Amazon.com have all dropped in their rankings.
Pichai added that the tech giant will support employees as they look for their next opportunity.
The announcement comes just after it was reported that Google is deferring some of its employee’s year-end bonuses as part of a move to a new performance management system.
Meanwhile, the company reported lower-than-expected earnings and sales in October. Profit declined 27 per cent to $13.9 billion compared to the previous year.
At that time, Pichai said Google would cut its expenses and Chief Financial Officer Ruth Porat said the new hires would decline by more than half in the fourth quarter from the previous period.
On the other hand, the online food delivery platform Swiggy has announced that it will lay off 380 employees as part of its latest layoffs process
The company has sent an email to the impacted employees informing them of its plans to remove hundreds of workers. Swiggy’s CEO Sriharsha Majety has apologised for the decision to reduce the headcounts and provided several justifications for the layoffs.
“We are implementing a very difficult decision to reduce the size of our team as a part of a restructuring exercise. In this process, we will be bidding goodbye to 380 talented Swiggsters. This has been an extremely difficult decision taken after exploring all available options, and I’m extremely sorry to all of you for having to go through with this,” said the company’s CEO.
The difficult macroeconomic conditions that Swiggy is facing are one of the main reasons for the layoffs. The company said that the growth rate for food delivery has slowed, which has led to lower profits and a revenue fall. Though, Swiggy is saying that it has sufficient cash reserves to sustain itself. The executive has also blamed ‘overhiring’ for its decision to lay off employees.
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As per the company, the affected employees will be offered cash payout between 3-6 months, based on their tenure and grade. People will receive an assured three-month pay, 15 days of ex-gratia for every completed year of service and a balance of earned leave too. Moreover, Swiggy will provide 3 months of payment to all the affected ones and this includes variable pay or incentives.
“The joining bonus and retention bonus will also be paid out will also be waived off. The annual vesting cliff has been waived. We will be extending vesting to the nearest quarter from the last working date. They will also be eligible to participate in the ESOP liquidity program slated for July 2023,” said Swiggy.
Swiggy also plans to close its Meat marketplace as the company has not reached market maturity despite its iterations. However, the company will still offer meat delivery via Instamart.
