Google Lays Off About 200 In Sales And Marketing

layoffsGoogle said Thursday it will cut about 200 jobs in sales and marketing, citing an overlap in responsibilities across the organization that could complicate the "decision-making" process and make teams less effective and efficient.

The cuts will take place globally and employees will have an opportunity to apply for other posts throughout the company, Google said in a blog post. "We over invested in some areas in preparation for the growth trends we were experiencing at the time," the Mountain View, Calif. company said.

Google has been cutting jobs since January, when it cut 100 recruiting positions. In February, the company said it would shutter its radio biz that eliminated about 40 jobs.

"Making changes of this kind is never easy -- and we recognize that the recession makes the timing even more difficult for the Googlers concerned," wrote Omid Kordestani, Google's senior vice president of global sales and business development. "We did look at a number of different options but ultimately concluded that we had to restructure our organizations in order to improve our effectiveness and efficiency as a business."

The job cuts announced affect less than 1% of the 20,200 workers employed.

Mark Simon, VP of industry relations at Didit.com, New York, doesn't believe Google will report revenue numbers as strong as they have in the "zillion" past quarters. "We don't know what they will report, but I think (the layoffs are) probably a good move in light of the economy," he said.

Google has a "set and forget" product, Simon said, which has allowed them to own about 72% of market share among advertisers and marketers. "Sales and marketing are probably areas they can do with less people," he said. "Google has earned industry status among customers, who will come back tomorrow because they no longer need the daily details from a sales and marketing crew."

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