Google cuts 200 sales jobs

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Google might be the biggest force on the web, but its not immune to the recession as it announced job losses in sales and marketing.

That said, the 200 jobs being cut in sales and marketing – in addition to 100 slashed from recruiting last year – is still significantly fewer than the cuts many tech firms have had since the economy crashed.

Omid Kordestani, senior vice president for global sales and business development, said in a blog post that the cuts had more to do with duplication of effort across different parts of the company after misjudging how quickly it was growing, rather than the recession. "Google has grown very quickly in a very short period of time. When companies grow that quickly it's almost impossible to get everything right—and we certainly didn't."

“In some areas we've created overlapping organizations, which not only duplicate effort, but also complicate the decision-making process," he said. "In addition, we over-invested in some areas in preparation for the growth trends we were experiencing at the time.”

He added: “Making changes of this kind is never easy — and we recognize that the recession makes the timing even more difficult for the Googlers concerned.”

Google said it would try to find another role for the effected employees at the company, and would offer severance packages and outplacement support.

Click here to read more about the job cuts hitting the IT industry.

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