What it’s important to know
- Google is seemingly merging the teams behind Maps and Waze.
- The switch signifies that Waze’s current CEO, Neha Parikh, will step down.
- Google doesn’t intend to place off employees from the Waze crew as part of a broader cost-cutting measure.
Waze has maintained full autonomy since being acquired by Google in 2013, with the crew working independently from its dad or mum agency, nonetheless that’s no longer the case. On Friday, December 9, Google folded the crew into its Geo enterprise.
In response to The Wall Avenue Journal (opens in new tab), the restructuring is part of Google’s larger effort to cut costs by streamlining the enterprise. Waze will proceed to operate as a separate app from Google Maps, though it’s being merged into the Geo group, which oversees Maps, Google Earth, and Avenue View. The merger will finish in a lot much less overlapping work on every suppliers.
Waze’s 500 employees may even be part of Google’s Geo group, which suggests no layoffs are being deliberate for the crew. Sadly, the reorganization signifies that Waze CEO Neha Parikh will depart her place, a company spokesperson suggested WSJ.
Google’s dad or mum company, Alphabet, acquired Waze in 2013 for spherical $1 billion. At present, the platform serves roughly 150 million month-to-month clients. Whereas it has remained unbiased, a couple of of its widespread choices have been ported over to Maps, resembling the flexibleness to report shut by gasoline prices, get website guests slowdown alerts, and add stops to your route.
“Google stays deeply devoted to Waze’s distinctive mannequin, its beloved app and its thriving group of volunteers and clients,” Waze’s head of PR, Caroline Bourdeau, suggested The Verge (opens in new tab).
In September, Alphabet CEO Sundar Pichai talked about that he wished to make Google 20% additional setting pleasant by turning into leaner and relying on fewer belongings.
Many tech behemoths have utilized their very personal cost-cutting measures in response to uncertain worldwide monetary challenges, which have principally involved mass layoffs. Meta laid off larger than 11,000 employees following a similar switch by Twitter. Amazon’s employees at its Models & Firms division weren’t spared each.
Whereas the latest switch has raised issues amongst Waze employees, Google reiterates that it doesn’t intend to terminate present employees on the service. “By bringing the Waze crew into Geo’s portfolio of real-world mapping merchandise, like Google Maps, Google Earth and Avenue View, the teams will revenue from further elevated technical collaboration,” Bourdeau suggested The Verge.
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