• VentureBeat, Thursday, January 8, 2009 11:15 AM

Rumors that Google is planning a massive round of layoffs among its temporary workers were corroborated somewhat by a new regulatory filing this week, but VentureBeat says details of the layoffs remain murky. "Google seems to be going to some lengths to keep some of this information under wraps," the blog said. The SEC filing showed that Google currently has 24,400 employees, including 4,300 interns, temporary workers and contractors. But that last figure doesn't jive with what co-founder Sergey Brin told the (San Jose) Mercury News last fall--that Google employed close to 10,000 temporary workers.

So did Google just layoff 6,000 workers? No. A Google spokeswoman claims the 4,300 in the SEC filing is just a subset of the 10,000 Sergey alluded to in October. Interestingly, a large section of the filing was kept confidential because Google claimed it contains trade secrets. The filing was also curiously made on paper, rather than electronically, which is odd for a technology firm.

Other tidbits from the filing show that Google is in danger of being regulated as a mutual fund if its investments go much higher. Organizations are classified as such when their investments exceed 40% of assets. According to the filing, Google's investments currently stand at 28% of assets; the company thinks it will soon exceed 40% and is seeking an exemption, something which was granted to both Microsoft and Yahoo.

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