200 sales and marketing jobs go at Google

US-- Google has axed nearly 200 sales and marketing jobs worldwide, saying it had to readjust how resources were allocated following its rapid growth.

Around half of the jobs lost are in North America. The firm has not said whether marketing research roles were affected, and declined to give more detail in response to a query from Research.

In a blog post, Google's senior VP for global sales and business development Omid Kordestani said the cuts were to make up for areas where the company had created overlapping organisations that duplicated work, or where it had over-invested after over-estimating growth.

“Google has grown very quickly in a very short period of time,” said Kordestani. When companies grow that quickly it's almost impossible to get everything right – and we certainly didn't.”

Kordestani said employees would be given time to try to find other positions within Google, and that severance packages would be provided. “I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone affected for all they have contributed to Google,” he said.

Author: Robert Bain