Google Laid Off High Performers and Earners While Largely Sparing ‘Brain’ AI Lab

Google's move to lay off 6.4% of staff on Friday didn’t come as a shock to most employees, but it stunned some of the individuals who were cut. Laid-off employees included those who had previously received high performance reviews or held managerial positions with annual compensation packages of $500,000 to $1 million, according to managers who spoke to The Information.

The 12,000 or so affected employees spanned nearly every organization, from Google Cloud and Chrome to Android and search-related groups under senior executive Prabhakar Raghavan, these people said. The cloud unit has been among the fastest growing parts of Google in recent years, as The Information has reported, but has struggled to win big customer deals and recently parted ways with senior sales leaders in a reorganization. Google Cloud laid off people in strategy, recruiting, and so-called go-to-market teams that provide salespeople with data, training and research for making deals. It also laid off salespeople in places like Austin, said a person briefed about them.