Google is merging the workforce it has engaged on the navigation app Waze into the identical group that oversees Google Maps, the corporate has introduced. The Wall Road Journal experiences that the transfer isn’t anticipated to mark the top of Waze as a separate service, and no layoffs are deliberate as a part of the reorganization. Nevertheless, Waze CEO Neha Parikh is predicted to depart the position after the transition, and the transfer is predicted to scale back overlapping work, the WSJ notes.
Going ahead, Waze’s 500 staff are anticipated to be part of Google’s Geo group, which oversees Maps alongside Earth and Road View.
Google acquired Waze nearly a decade in the past
“Google stays deeply dedicated to Waze’s distinctive model, its beloved app and its thriving group of volunteers and customers,” Waze’s head of PR, Caroline Bourdeau, tells The Verge in a press release. “By bringing the Waze workforce into Geo’s portfolio of real-world mapping merchandise, like Google Maps, Google Earth and Road View, the groups will profit from additional elevated technical collaboration.” The WSJ experiences that the merger will begin on Friday, December ninth.
However in September, Google CEO Sundar Pichai mentioned that he was working to make the corporate extra productive, and there’s additionally been strain from activist buyers to scale back prices. Merging overlapping product areas was one of many examples Pichai gave as a strategy to obtain this, and it’s hoped this restructuring ought to obtain one thing related for Google’s mapping merchandise.