Last Updated: January 31, 2024, 18:27 IST
San Francisco, California, USA
Google is spending billions to repay the individuals who had been requested to go away
Google has been on a significant layoff spree since 2023 and issues are trying bleak this yr as effectively. Here’s the fee concerned within the course of.
Google spent $2.1 billion on severance and different bills because it laid off greater than 12,000 workers final yr. The firm will spend one other $700 million on worker severance costs for the primary quarter of this yr.
Alphabet (the father or mother firm of Google) posted revenues of $307 billion for the complete yr 2023, up 9 per cent in comparison with 2022.
“We ended with a strong fourth quarter (quarter ended December 31) with consolidated revenues of $86.3 billion, up 13 per cent versus last year in both reported and constant currency. Search remained the largest contributor to revenue growth,” mentioned Ruth Porat, Chief Financial Officer.
At this level within the quarter, the corporate estimates that severance-associated bills will probably be roughly $700 million within the first quarter “as we’ve continued these efforts”.
“We will continue to invest in top engineering. So that’s sort of the big one, if you start with product prioritization and organizational design, which is why also the note about the severance-related expense, which helps pave the way as we’re continuing to do the work that we’re doing,” Porat advised analysts throughout the earnings name late on Tuesday.
Within Google Services, revenues had been $76.3 billion, up 12 per cent. Google Search and different promoting revenues of $48 billion within the quarter had been up 13 per cent, led once more by development in retail. YouTube promoting revenues of $9.2 billion had been up 16 per cent, pushed by each direct response and model promoting, mentioned the corporate.
“Subscriptions are growing strongly, powered by YouTube Premium and Music, YouTube TV, and Google One. Three, Cloud, which crossed $9 billion in revenues this quarter and saw accelerated growth, driven by our gen AI and product leadership,” mentioned Sundar Pichai, Alphabet and Google CEO.
“We have long led the way in using AI to improve many of our products from search to ads to most of our consumer and enterprise products, helping billions of people already,” he added.
