Btw, the "finding a new role" is easily within Google. One of the "cloud" teams that was defragged was in my office, and some of those people were people I've worked with over the years. Local management are trying to make sure they have places to land on other teams in the office.

Yes, they can look for new jobs externally, but this is how Google deals with cleaning up teams from time-to-time. Luckily Google is still hiring, and people moving to new teams tends to work out without much fuss.

Outside Google, I've seen the same behavior. A friend that worked at waffle.io got a similar 3-6 month transition window (find a new job internally or externally). They ended up staying at Broadcom, so it's a good way for companies to retain talent in a tight labor market.