Google lays off hundreds of hardware employees and Fitbit founders leave the company – IT – News

Google laid off hundreds of employees across multiple departments on Wednesday. “A few hundred” jobs were cut on the augmented reality hardware team, Google Assistant, and Fitbit, among others. In the final section, several executives, including the founders, leave the company.

Google confirms to multiple media outlets, Including 9to5GoogleThe company is cutting hundreds of jobs as part of a “reorganization.” The exact number is not clear, nor are the exact sections. Anyway, it's about a few hundred jobs in the department that handles Google Assistant, and also several hundred jobs in the teams responsible for Google Pixel, Nest, and Fitbit devices. According to Google, these three hardware teams will now be merged and placed under central management. As a result, it appears that nearly all of Fitbit's executives will leave the company, including its founders James Park and Eric Friedman, the company confirms. To TechCrunch.

However, the bulk of the hardware-related layoffs are said to have occurred within Google's internal AR hardware team. It's not clear if this means the company is no longer working on its own augmented reality hardware. Google said in a statement that it “remains deeply committed to other AR initiatives, such as AR experiences in our products and collaborations with other parties.” It is already known that Google is working with Samsung on an augmented reality headset. In August, it was reported that development was progressing less well than expected. Business Insider previously claimed that Google has halted production of its in-house Project Iris VR headset.

Alphabet, Google's parent company, also held a round of layoffs in early 2023. It looks like it will be on a larger scale, because 12,000 jobs were cut at that time. There were several layoffs at the time, including at its operating system Fuchsia and at Area 120.