Numerous businesses have made layoffs or modified their company approach during the previous few months in an effort to adapt and right the ship for the new year. Google is supposedly merging its Geo and Waze teams in an effort to minimize expenses by consolidating some of its workforce.
The Wall Street Journal reports that Google intends to combine the Waze team, which numbers roughly 500 workers, with the Google Maps and Google Earth teams, among others. According to the article, this will occur on December 9. Waze CEO Neha Parikh is reportedly leaving the firm following the merger, so it looks like there may be some casualties. While Google has combined the teams, it insists that each product will stay independent; for example, Waze will continue to exist as a separate entity. Despite the fact that the measure will eliminate redundancies inside the organization, the source claims that Google has no plans to lay off any employees.
Almost ten years ago, Google paid $1.1 billion to acquire Waze. Ever since then, Google has maintained the service as a separate entity, with the service itself supplying updates and new features to the app. Over 150 million people are using Waze right now, which is a lot but still dwarfed by Google Maps’ 1 billion users.
It’s not the first time we’ve heard of a change being made. Prior to now, the company has undertaken strategic changes, including as refocusing efforts on its hardware division and devoting fewer resources to less crucial projects. The shutdown of its Stadia game streaming service was probably the most significant change this year. It was unexpected, but the company has put things right with its customers by providing full refunds for hardware and game purchases made through its platform.
