“Cutting 12,000 Jobs Step In Right Direction But…”: What An Investor Told Google

Google’s parent company Alphabet Inc eliminated 12,000 jobs or 6 per cent of its workforce. Hedge fund billionaire Christopher Hohn wrote a letter to Google and Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai advising him to “cut thousand more jobs”.

In a viral letter, the billionaire dated January 20 that Google’s 12,000 layoff is a step in the right direction, but it does not reverse the very strong headcount growth of 2022. “Ultimately management will need to go further”.

The founder of The Children’s Investment Fund Management (TCI) holds a $6 billion stake in Google-parent company Alphabet, The Telegraph reported.

Last year, Sir Chris who paid himself a record  Euro 1.5m a day in 2022 added that Alphabet had doubled its headcount in the last five years and he advised that the management should aim to “reduce headcount to 150,000, which is in line with Alphabet’s headcount at the end of 2021. This would require a total headcount reduction in the order of 20 per cent.”

He also said that Google should “address excessive employee compensation”. He further warned that the company should moderate stock-based payments.

Sir Chris added that he hopes to “have a further dialogue” with Sundar Pichai on these matters in due course.

On January 21, Google announced layoffs.

For years Alphabet has attracted top talent to build Google, YouTube and other products that reach billions of users, but it is now locked in competition with Microsoft Corp in a burgeoning area known as generative artificial intelligence.

The cuts at Alphabet come days after Microsoft said it would lay off 10,000 workers, Reuters reported.