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Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

nytimes.com

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Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#781

Post by karmasimida »

Solvency wrote: post #771
vkou wrote: post #769

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The connective thread is that tech growth has slowed/stopped and Wall Street is looking to make cuts, because salaries are expensive, and shit, if they have the option between more expenses and less expenses, they will keep taking 'less expenses', until it clearly and incontroversially affects the bottom line.

Right but where are Atlassian's layoffs, Asana, or any of the other hundreds of "lower" tier tech companies? It's unusual that they're all skating by, to me.

Just google it,

Atlassian, Asana all did layoffs in late 22/23

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#783

Post by stephencoyner »

ianceicys wrote: post #770
Solvency wrote: post #768

Between Discord, Twitch, Amazon+Prime, and Google... what's the layoff pattern here? Are we talking about social community teams? Streaming/networking engineers? Or is there no connective thread between these four companies? Are there other corporate layoffs that round out this intrigue?

Salesforce just announced a hiring freeze and word on the street is that in the next 30 days they are going to be cutting staff.

Where have you heard about the layoff rumors?

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#785

Post by m_a_g »

Solvency wrote: post #768

Between Discord, Twitch, Amazon+Prime, and Google... what's the layoff pattern here? Are we talking about social community teams? Streaming/networking engineers? Or is there no connective thread between these four companies? Are there other corporate layoffs that round out this intrigue?

My guess is that these were supposed to happen in late 2023 but didn't due to the holiday season. So now almost three months of layoffs are happening back to back.

This might be wishful thinking, but looking at their size, these are fairly normal layoffs, and the worst part is over. (Remember 25% Meta and Google layoffs )

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#786

Post by forward1 »

Solvency wrote: post #768

Between Discord, Twitch, Amazon+Prime, and Google... what's the layoff pattern here? Are we talking about social community teams? Streaming/networking engineers? Or is there no connective thread between these four companies? Are there other corporate layoffs that round out this intrigue?

Intrigue? The economy is teetering on recession. These companies understand macro trends better than anyone, and can plainly see what is coming. Now the play is to protect the war chests they have amassed to weather the storm.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#787

Post by Pentamerous »

forward1 wrote: post #784
__loam wrote: post #780

This is a company that makes about 18 billion dollars in profit per quarter.

It is still a business - not a charity.

It's still real people who suffer when the numbers tell a different story - not charity cases.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#788

Post by InitialLastName »

hasty_pudding wrote: post #763
anonymouse008 wrote: post #755

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny enough, this is already a response to a tax. 174 capitalizes software and general unproven R&D as the default now… ruining the cash position of many businesses that “made taxable GAAP profits” The rules of the game have changed. We were allowed to expense all employee compensation tied to software or R&D in the year in which we paid it. Now we can only expense a small fraction of that because we have to capital…

The company used the developer that year and made the profit that year. It doesn't make sense to me why they would they have to expense it over 5 years.

It's not like the developer is a plumber, where the company gets paid per toilet they can replace in a year. The IP that the developer developed is an asset that will keep earning a return in ensuing years; in every other field of business, yearly depreciation is how you account for the cost of your assets.

Re: Google Cuts Jobs in Engineering and Other Divisions

#789

Post by hmottestad »

anonymouse008 wrote: post #755
nojvek wrote: post #736

Google is almost a 2T company. The amount of wealth that big google shareholders hold in the 1T+ tech companies is mind boggling. Perhaps US should consider raising capital gains tax.

Funny enough, this is already a response to a tax. 174 capitalizes software and general unproven R&D as the default now… ruining the cash position of many businesses that “made taxable GAAP profits” The rules of the game have changed. We were allowed to expense all employee compensation tied to software or R&D in the year in which we paid it. Now we can only expense a small fraction of that because we have to capital…

I can only compare it to expensing for purchases that are considered assets. The typical example is that you buy a car for 30k, the car is still mostly worth 30k, so even if you’re out 30k cash you still own a car. So at the end of the year when you’ve made 50k profit and you wonder if you can deduct the 30k from the car, the government will say that the car is still worth a lot of money, so you can deduct 10% of that 30k you paid.

I guess that the government isn’t considering the expense of the employee as much as they are considering the value that the company has retained. Say the developer creates some software that you turn around and license to your customers. That software now has a value, and it will have a value next year too. It probably won’t have a value forever, which is why you can expense a certain percentage of it every year for x number of years.

The money you spent on the employee is probably a direct expense that year, but the product they created still has a value. The simplest way of valuing the product, from the governments perspective, is just to consider it equal to the development cost.

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