• The New York Times, Thursday, April 3, 2008 11 AM

Google, as expected, went ahead with layoffs at newly acquired DoubleClick. The search leader cut about 300 jobs from DoubleClick's American operations, representing about one-quarter of the company's domestic workforce. Cuts are also expected overseas, but these will come at a later date. The cuts represented the first sizable layoff in Google's history.

The company also said it would offload Performics, DoubleClick's search engine marketing unit. "It is clear to us that we do not want to be in the search engine marketing business," Tom Phillips, director of DoubleClick integration at Google, wrote on the company's official blog. "At Google, maintaining objectivity in both search and advertising is paramount to our mission and core to the trust we ask from our users."

That said, Google will retain the affiliate marketing portion of Performics, which helps advertisers like eBay establish networks that drive traffic to their sites.

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