Google lays off hundreds of hardware employees, Fitbit founders leave company

Google laid off hundreds of employees across multiple departments on Wednesday. ‘A few hundred’ jobs have been cut at the AR hardware team, Assistant and Fitbit, among others. In the latter division, several executives, including the founders, are leaving the company.

Google confirms to multiple news media, including 9to5Google, that the company is cutting hundreds of jobs as part of a reorganization. The exact number is not clear, nor are the precise departments. In any case, it concerns ‘a few hundred’ at the division that deals with Google Assistant, and also several hundred jobs at the teams responsible for the hardware of the Google Pixel, Nest and Fitbit. According to Google, these three hardware teams will now be merged, putting them under central management. As a result, virtually all Fitbit executives appear to be leaving the company, including its two founders, James Park and Eric Friedman, the company confirms to TechCrunch.

However, the bulk of the hardware-related layoffs are said to have occurred within Google’s in-house AR hardware team. It is not clear whether this means that the company is no longer working on its own AR hardware. In a statement, Google said only that it “remains deeply committed to other AR initiatives, such as AR experiences in our products, and collaborations with other parties.” It is already known that Google is working with Samsung on an augmented reality headset. In August it was reported that development is going less well than expected. Business Insider previously claimed that Google has halted production of its in-house Project Iris VR headset.

Google parent company Alphabet also held a layoff round in early 2023. It seems to be on a larger scale, because 12,000 jobs were cut at the time. There were many layoffs at the time, including at its own operating system Fuchsia and at Area 120.