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Re:Google Lays Off Hundreds in Hardware, Voice Assistant Teams by choppaface on Thursday January 11, 2024 @12:23AM (#38948084)
They probably tried to move as many as possible to Bard or to backfill Ads / Android etc but some of these are people who wouldn’t / couldn’t move. It mainly signals that upper management is not up to task and made bad bets. Fitbit was a great product and for Google to axe the founders says “we care about monetizing users not serving them.”
Re:Google Lays Off Hundreds in Hardware, Voice Assistant Teams by meragrin_ on Thursday January 11, 2024 @01:21AM (#38948486)
> Fitbit was a great product and for Google to axe the founders says “we care about monetizing users not serving them.”

They weren't axed. They are choosing to leave. They probably reached the point where all the incentives to stay were earned and have no other reason to stay. The Fitbit acquisition was completed 3 years ago so it is quite likely they have reached full vestment.

Re:Google Lays Off Hundreds in Hardware, Voice Assistant Teams by tdb7893 on Thursday January 11, 2024 @01:04AM (#38948371)
That isn't an accurate characterization of these layoffs. They also laid people off in ads and just across all the orgs in general apparently. I'm hearing this from one of my friends in ads who got laid off.
Re:Google Lays Off Hundreds in Hardware, Voice Assistant Teams by bpye on Thursday January 11, 2024 @12:30AM (#38948128)
> Fitbit was a great product and for Google to axe the founders says “we care about monetizing users not serving them.”

Is this really a surprise to anyone at this point?

Re:Google Lays Off Hundreds in Hardware, Voice Assistant Teams by choppaface on Thursday January 11, 2024 @12:52AM (#38948289)
No but there are a lot of Google employees who still believe e.g. Google makes the world a better place by owning all third party cookies.