Recession hits Google, 200 staff to be retrenched

Global - Google is retrenching about 200 marketing and sales staff globally, the largest layoff in its short-history, with Asia Pacific to be affected.

Omid Kordestani, senior vice president of global sales and business development for Google, announced the news on the company blog.

Kordestani wrote that "making changes of this kind is never easy-and we recognize that the recession makes the timing even more difficult for the Googlers concerned".

"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. We will give each person time to try and find another position at Google, as well as outplacement support, and provide severance packages for those who leave the company," he said.

The 200 retrenchments are across Google's global operations, but it is believed around half of the positions are based in the US. However, Marketing understands no staff in Google's Singapore and Southeast Asia operations will be affected. According to overseas media, Google Australasia has closed its Melbourne office and 15 staff have been sacked.

Google declined to comment on the layoffs.