Gawker
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confirmed
Google to Lay Off 200 Employees
Make it official: Google's not immune from the bad economy and plummeting ad market. We've been hearing for weeks that Google would have layoffs. Google is cutting 200 employees today, the company now confirms.
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By Owen ThomasComment by TheHonJudgeSmails: I long for the day when spokespeople respond immediately when contacted for comment by a blog. 3 Responses | Other threads
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antitrust
It's Time to Ask if Google's Too Big to Fail
Google CEO Eric Schmidt recently told the BBC that the U.S. should break up banks that get "too big to fail." What about Google? Is it too big — and should the government take action? More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by snitch29: Google is the only search engine that delivers the entire web, MSN search for example only shows you what ever... 6 Responses | Other threads
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acquisitions
Google sells the search marketing business it never wanted to own
As promised, Google has found a buyer for Performics, the search-marketing business it acquired when it bought DoubleClick. French ad conglomerate Publicis will take the Chicago-based company off Google's hands for an amount that so far remains undisclosed — probably because the fire-sale price will be low enough to be immaterial to both companies. [Reuters] -
google
DoubleClick's affiliate network now part of Google
In 2004, DoubleClick bought Performics for $58 million and came out with the DoubleClick's Performics affiliate ad network, a system which pays publishers after users click on an ad and make a purchase or take some other action. Now, after Google's acquired DoubleClick, its rebranded the network as the Google Affiliate Network, signaling the search giant's entry into cost-per-action advertising, after tentative experiments. [News.com] -
antitrust
Google's answer to antitrust concerns over Yahoo deal: Whirlpool
Yahoo executives want to let Google serve ads next to its search results. But that would mean Google would be selling ads on 80 percent of all search queries online. Microsoft won't let that happen without stirring up antitrust fears in Washington. Secret Google sources tell the New York Times they plan to get around these concerns by schooling regulators on the concept of "co-opetition," which they say what Toyota does when it sells hybrid engines to GM, or when Whirlpool makes appliances for Sears. More » -
10 worst workspaces
Tech's worst workspace: Mozilla
What's so bad about Mozilla's Toronto workspace? Besides the fluorescent lighting, the colorless white walls and the folding tables, the worst thing about Mozilla's Toronto workspace is how we're sure management would improve it. With corporate graffiti, company logos and too many colors. That was management's trick at Facebook and look where readers ranked it in our poll on tech's ten worst workspaces — as tech's second-worst workspace, just after Mozilla. Check out the full list, below. More »
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Comment by Nicholas Carlson: @nethaqr: But Mozilla is turning a profit... more » | Other threads
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10 worst workspaces
Rank tech's 10 worst workspaces
After reviewing our post "The 10 worst workspaces in tech," commenter AdmNaismith described Facebook's office, pictured above, as "foggy, dank, dim, and utterly depressing." Commenter mothra1 hated Yahoo's New York offices more: "They suck! Lifeless and impersonal. Kinda like the douchebags who still actually work there." Meanwhile, Adobe apologist BlairHapjo told us we "clearly didn't get past Adobe's lobby," and the rest of the office features "Aeron chairs, real offices (with doors!), big picture windows." For us, the worst offices we found on Office Snapshots and elsewhere were the the ones that try too hard to seem Internet-hip, like Jajah and Google. Now it's time to settle the disputes. Below, vote for your least favorite and help us rank tech's 10 most dismal places to work: More » -
pop quiz
Google and the seven dwarfs
Google's collection of Web properties somtimes seem unconnected and disorganized. But there's a common thread between Print Ads, Audio Ads, TV Ads, Checkout, YouTube, Postini and DoubleClick. Can you guess what it is? More » -
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cubicle culture
The 10 worst workspaces in tech
We've toured the top 10 workspaces in tech. Now, we've gone back to Office Snapshots to find the 10 worst. What makes them so bad? Some offend with exposed fluorescent lights, gray cubicles and a dystopian corporate sheen. But others, with their pseudo-hip graffiti, kindergarten toys and plastic decorations — all in a desperate attempt to seem "Internet-y" — come off even worse. We'll start with Yahoo's New York digs. More »
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Comment by iamdmann: i'm not sure it counts as "tech" although it is a website, costar's corporate hq offices in bethesda are pretty... more » | Other threads
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10 worst workspaces
DoubleClick
DoubleClick More »
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Comment by giania: We've got a very similar shade of yellow in the conference room now. It evokes a feeling of sipping politely... more » | Other threads
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online advertising
Schmidt gives engineers six months to complete Google-DoubleClick integration
Engineers hate it when suits put them on public deadlines, because they then can't spend months twiddling code to perfection. That's exactly what Google CEO Eric Schmidt did yesterday when he told CNBC's Maria Bartiromo that the integration of DoubleClick's ad-serving platform into Google's AdWords would take six months. Better get cracking, boys.
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Comment by random_play: Don't worry, if they run behind schedule, they can just add more programmers. more » | Other threads
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eric schmidt
Google CEO backpedals on privacy promises
Last year, Google placated privacy-minded opponents of its DoubleClick acquisition with promises to create a new kind of Web browser "cookie," a file which keeps personally identifiable information about a website's users. Now that Google has swallowed DoubleClick, the online advertising company seems to have lost its interest in developing these so-called "crumbled cookies," the Financial Times reports. Google CEO Eric Schmidt that's because cookies are too complex for Google to deal with. "What we've discovered about cookies is that every question leads to a one-hour conversation," Schmidt said. Please, folks, be a little more understanding: It's not that Google doesn't want to answer difficult questions about privacy. They're just too busy.
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Comment by Magister: I guess mirroring the world's informatiion is relatively easy and maybe tweaking the algorithm could be a snap, but cookies... more » | Other threads
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don't be evil
Did you sign Google's noncompete? Good, you're fired
A recently departed DoubleClicker tells us that Google managers asked employees at the online ad company it acquired last month to sign one-year noncompete agreements. Most agreed, thinking that it would spare their jobs — but then layoffs came a week later. They were "pretty pissed" over the bait-and-switch and were forced to find jobs outside their industry. The text of the noncompete is below. More »
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Comment by LoralieMouse: Can companies in CA enforce non-compete's if the individual works part-time BEFORE being laid off/quitting? (If the work is in... more » | Other threads
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layoffs
On Wall Street, layoffs mean you get $50,000 for never showing up
Google offered laid-off DoubleClick employees two options: take two months pay and find work at a competitor or take four months pay and join another industry. Some lucky DoubleClick employees were offered contract positions, which means they have to head to the elevator and buy lunch on the streets every day just like any other non-Googler. Meanwhile, further downtown on Wall Street, MBA grads who recently won jobs at the crashed-and-burned Bear Stearns won't get them. The company has rescinded its offers, reports SAI. But JPMorgan Chase — the company that bailed out Bear Stearns — will still pay the no-longer-needed new hires their promised $50,000 to $60,000 relocation bonuses and offer them career services.
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Comment by raincoaster: Getting bought and laid off is the best scam there is. I have a friend whose companies flipped three times... more » | Other threads
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cubicle culture
Some DoubleClick layoff victims now foosball-free Google contractors
A select few of the 300 DoubleClick employees Google laid off yesterday will be placed into "transitional roles" and offered contract positions, reports the WSJ. That's not much of a reprieve. Google HR makes contractors sign agreements to abide by strict rules. They're not allowed to " use massage chairs, videogames, pool tables, foosball tables or other entertainment facilities on Google's campus," according to one such agreement leaked to us. Probably won't get to eat the food, either. Read the whole thing below: More »
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Comment by Blackjack: Silly Valleywag, a contract for Bamco employees isn't what the Doubleclicks will be offered. more » | Other threads
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online advertising
Former Spy magazine publisher writes corporate memo
Google plans to sell DoubleClick's search engine marketing division. "Maintaining objectivity in both search and advertising is paramount to our mission and core to the trust we ask from our users," Google's DoubleClick integration boss Tom Phillips wrote on the company's blog. In the '80s, Phillips ran a magazine called Spy which would have skewered him for such carefully groomed language. [WSJ] -
google
After Google layoffs, we ask DoubleClick employees, "How was your day?"
NEW YORK — Google laid off around 300 DoubleClick employees today, one still with the company told me this afternoon. We were standing outside DoubleClick's headquarters at 111 8th Avenue in Chelsea, where I spent the afternoon asking DoubleClick employees how their day went. More »
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Comment by Owen Thomas: @ThatKid: They were indeed. Popular building thanks to the fiber-optic lines going through the area. more » | Other threads
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april fools
DoubleClick layoffs were pushed back to avoid spoiling yesterday's fun
We reported Google layoffs at DoubleClick would start yesterday, but they only began today. Why? A DoubleClick employee said that Google pushed the cuts back "because yesterday was April Fools' Day." Ah, make the peons wait a day while Larry and Sergey have their fun. A quaintly botched approximation of mercy, no doubt. Today, our source tells us: "People are getting calls and start crying when they are told that are being let go." Would they have laughed if they'd been told yesterday?
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Comment by norse: categorically: websites have to pay the bills too...you could always turn your cookies off. more » | Other threads
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confirmed
DoubleClick severance: up to four months' pay, if you don't go work for Google's enemies
Google layoffs at DoubleClick, the online-advertising tech company based in New York that it just acquired, began a day later than expected. Today, among others, the entire finance team was shown the door. It's a bright, sunny day in New York; a good start for ex-DoubleClickers' four-month vacation. Google's severance package: two months' pay plus another two if they sign a noncompete agreement, a Google source told Vanity Fair. No wonder Google wants them off the market: Yahoo and other online-advertising rivals are actively recruiting DoubleClick veterans. (Photo by stobor)
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Comment by Wabewalker: @MarkTheMarketWatcher: I suspect Microsoft will simply make life unlivable for the stragglers until they quit on their own. True evil is... more » | Other threads
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layoffs
Google to lay off 15 percent at DoubleClick
A tipster with two friends at DoubleClick tells us Google will cut DoubleClick's staff by 15 percent, trimming the sales teams that push Dart for Advertisers and Dart for Publishers by 20 percent. Google plans to give those ad-targeting services to its advertisers for free, making money on brokering ads. Most of the rest headed for the door are general staff whose functions overlap with Google's administrative workers. More » -
poll
DoubleClickers let us know if they welcome their new Google overlords
We've laid out the reasons why DoubleClick employees should ditch Google — Google's Ivy League 'tude, its disdain for DoubleClick's accomplishments, its intentionally disorganized management, and its mediocre compensation. Now we want to know: With layoffs looming as a result of the Google-DoubleClick merger, do DoubleClick employees even want to work for Google? Let us know in our latest Valleywag poll. More » -
online advertising
4 reasons why DoubleClickers should ditch Google
We've been hearing that impending layoffs have DoubleClick employees fearing for their jobs after Google finishes its takeover. Why? Working there sucks. Ask any Googler. Below, four reasons why DoubleClickers should welcome their liberation from the Googleplex: More » -
online advertising
Google to announce DoubleClick layoffs on April 1 — no fooling
Ever since Google CEO Eric Schmidt promised "reductions in headcount" as part of the Google-DoubleClick merger, there's been much tension at the New York-based online ad network. Who gets to stay and pig out on all the new Googley perks? Who will have to hit the streets to face a slowing job market? The answers arrive April 1. It's not an April Fools' joke. More »
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Comment by Pragmatic: Comment on Google to announce DoubleClick layoffs on April 1 -- no fooling This brings up an interesting possibility. Microsoft... more » | Other threads
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cubicle culture
Googlers: Dear DoubleClickers, stop eating our food you pigs
DoubleClick employees may technically work for Google now, but an ad in the DoubleClick Facebook network indicates that they're not real Googlers yet. "Hi DoubleClick!," the ad copy reads. "Please stop gorging on all our food. Maybe we won't fire you. Thanks!" The banner ad is below. More »
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Comment by zibby: Is that just mud, or has the pig soiled itself badly? more » | Other threads
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acquisitions
Google actually paid $3.24 billion for DoubleClick, not the $3.11 billion it originally bid last year. The $130 million difference comes from DoubleClick's cash and the exercise price of outstanding options. [Bloomberg News] -
quotable
"Compared to the $6.1 billion Microsoft paid for aQuantive and the $3 billion Google paid for DoubleClick I feel we have done a pretty good job here." — AOL CEO Randy Falco, explaining that the fact that his predecessor, Jonathan Miller, spent $435 million to buy Advertising.com somehow makes up for the $850 million Falco just spent on Bebo. [Guardian]
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Comment by Carlos: uhhhhh, how about the fact that those other companies had revenue bigger than a lemonade stand? more » | Other threads
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schadenfreude
Google layoffs a-comin'
Buried in CEO Eric Schmidt's blog post about the company's greenlighted acquisition of DoubleClick:As with most mergers, there may be reductions in headcount. We expect these to take place in the U.S. and possibly in other regions as well. We know that DoubleClick is built on the strength of its people. For this reason we'll strive to minimize the impact of this process on all of our clients and employees.
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By Paul BoutinComment by allstar444: this would be a good way for GOOG to "trim the fat"- like those kids in adwords. getting paid to... more » | Other threads
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confirmed
European regulators officially cleared Google's $3.1 billion DoubleClick acquisition. Microsoft, Yahoo and AOL will provide "credible" competition, the European Commission determined. When did "credible" become a synonym for "hypothetical." [WSJ]
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Comment by growhappy: Yahoo and Windows Live are leading the global search market, beating Google. [alexa.org] more » | Other threads
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google
Google gets EU blessing to buy DoubleClick, lobby against Microsoft-Yahoo
European antitrust regulators will approve Google's $3.1 billion DoubleClick acquisition later this week, the Financial Times reports. Expect Google's top lawyer David Drummond to soon turn up the heat on Microsoft-Yahoo. Before the EU finally approved Google-DoubleClick, Drummond had reason to stay relatively quiet as the new company formed by Microsoft-Yahoo would obviously create real competition for Google. But with EU approval in hand, that incentive is finished. Last fall, Google CEO Eric Schmidt credited Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer with slowing down Google-DoubleClick in Washington and abroad. Think he isn't eager to set his own suits on the attack? -
silicon alley insider
John Battelle welcomes Henry Blodget into snuggly embrace
Henry Blodget, editor of Silicon Alley Insider, has established himself as a connoisseur of male beauty. And John Battelle is a handsome man. He's also chairman of Federated Media, the online-ad network and paid friend to bloggers, which is more likely where the attraction lies. Blodget has publicly documented on his New York-based tech blog his struggles to find an ad model that works. At last, he has: Toss his banners in Battelle's lap. More »
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By Owen ThomasComment by hblodget: Battelle is indeed a good-looking guy, but it wasn't these charms that drew us to him. It was the sacks... more » | Other threads
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online advertising
DoubleClick CEO missed the Google memo, lauds Microsoft-Yahoo
Forgive DoubleClick CEO David Rosenblatt. As his company's merger with Google drags on, he must not have gotten a chance to attend new-Googler orientation yet. Some day he'll learn to toe the company line. Google has forbidden employees to speak on the Microsoft-Yahoo deal, but today AlleyInsider caught Rosenblatt telling the crowd at the DeSilva+Phillips conference in New York that the Microsoft-Yahoo merger makes sense. At least for Microsoft. More »
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Comment by craigts: This is a blatant attempt to assure that DoubleClick gets acquired by Google in the face of regulatory scrutiny. By... more » | Other threads
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online advertising
Jeff Bewkes would like a call from Eric Schmidt, too
Before Friday, recently coronated Time Warner CEO Jeff Bewkes had planned to get Time Warner out of the Internet access business entirely, lowering its stake in Time Warner Cable and somehow disposing of AOL's dialup business. He could then, at his leisure, consider an ad partnership between Time Warner's AOL and Microsoft or Yahoo, the Wall Street Journal speculates. But Friday saw Microsoft offer $44.6 billion to buy Yahoo. An analyst at T. Rowe Price said that news leaves Bewkes with one place to turn: Google. More »
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Comment by WillVille: Hmm, as Owen knows well there's few as good as TWX sales when it comes to wine'n and dining Publishers... more » | Other threads
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antitrust
Google's turn to waterboard Microsoft
Microsoft has been making Google miserable for a year over its DoubleClick purchase — and now, with Microsoft trying to buy Yahoo, it's payback time. That's the true meaning of top Google lawyer David Drummond's statement about the Microsoft bid. He's not saying that the deal is anticompetitive: He's just asking questions. Expect Google to keep asking, and asking, and asking — all the way up and down Capitol Hill, where the search giant has been steadily building up its lobbying presence. If Microsoft thought its last antitrust battle was torture, it hasn't seen anything yet. Drip, drip, drip.
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By Owen ThomasComment by WillVille: Apologies for the horrific spelling & grammar. I lurn 1 day more » | Other threads
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antitrust
Could Google make a competing bid for Yahoo?
Answer: No. Don't wait around for Google to swoop in and put Yahoo out of its misery. Larry and Sergey can't even kill DoubleClick, a much smaller company they've been trying to acquire for almost a year now. Beltway busybodies are already talking up an antitrust investigation into Microsoft's bid. Now imagine Google in place of Microsoft. See? You're getting smarter already.
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Comment by jbd: Fine, kill Yahoo. Just please don't fuck with Flickr. Or try to make it fully integrated with Paint. more » | Other threads
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predictions
CNBC's resident lunatic, Jim Cramer, makes predictions for '08
CNBC's Jim Cramer, host of Mad Money, dropped his predictions for 2008 in New York magazine this week. Along with some safe bets like "oil goes up" and "Goldman Sachs makes a lot of money," Cramer throws out some unlikely but not off-the-wall predictions about Verizon and Apple. But then when he gets to Google, he goes off the deep end. More »
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Comment by Slartey: I stumbled on this program a year or so ago, and tracked some of his advice. Suffice to say, it's... more » | Other threads
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conflict of interests
Google wined and dined FTC commissioners in Aspen
The FTC has approved Google's $3.1 billion acquisition, ignoring claims of conflict of interest that could have slowed down the process, like FTC chair Deborah Platt Majoras's marriage to a lawyer whose firm represented DoubleClick in the matter. And that wasn't the only scandal. Google cash paid, indirectly, for a lavish summit in Aspen that three commmissioners attended. More » -
acquisitions
FTC approves Google's $3.1 billion DoubleClick buy
Federal Trade Commission regulators voted 4-1 to approve the Google-DoubleClick merger. According to the WSJ, the commission ruled that the deal is "unlikely to substantially lessen competition." Google announced the merger eight months ago, but antitrust and privacy concerns brought by Microsoft slowed the deal in Washington. In the end, Microsoft, with its $500 million Viacom deal as well as its $240 million investment in Facebook, likely convinced regulators that the online-advertising business is as competitive as Google always argued.
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Comment by WagCurious: How is Google going to absorb all those non-Ivy league employees? None of them passed the purity test! What were... more » | Other threads
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online advertising
Viacom dumps Google's DoubleClick for Microsoft
Microsoft will pay Viacom $500 million over five years to serve ads and distribute content for the media conglomerate, according to reports. What does that mean? Besides Microsoft-sold ads on MTV.com, expect to see Nickelodeon clips on MSN, Laguna Hills downloads on your Xbox 360 console, and so on. Viacom's old advertising service was DoubleClick. We're guessing that relationship turned sour when Google — which faces a $1 billion copyright infringement suit from Viacom — announced its intent to purchase DoubleClick for $3.1 billion. (Photo by AP/Mark Lennihan)
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Comment by vulturesquadron: So, who paid who for what? First you say MS paid Viacom to advertise on Viacom's networks, and then... more » | Other threads
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google
Despite the fact that her husband is a partner for a firm that represents DoubleClick, FTC Chairman Deborah Platt Majoras will not recuse herself from the Google-DoubleClick merger case, she announced today. I, however, am happy to recuse myself. But nobody's asked. [Beyond Binary] -
conflicts of interest
Conflict of interest at FTC could delay GoogleClick merger
Two consumer advocacy groups say FTC chairman Deborah Platt Majoras has no place judging the merit of their privacy complaints stemming from the proposed merger of Google and DoubleClick. Majoras's husband, John M. Majoras, works as an antitrust lawyer at Jones Day. DoubleClick is a firm client. That's a conflict of interest, say the Electronic Privacy Information Center and the Center for Digital Democracy. More »
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Comment by ScalaWag: This should head straight into Congressional investigation. more » | Other threads
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