Google Goes Old Media

Lost in yesterday's announcement of the EU approval of Google's acquisition of DoubleClick was the news that the post-merger integration process will come with something associated with old media mergers: layoffs.

Posted to the official Google Blog were Eric Schmidt's comments:

As with most mergers, there may be reductions in headcount. We expect these to take place in the U.S. and possibly in other regions as well. We know that DoubleClick is built on the strength of its people. For this reason we’ll strive to minimize the impact of this process on all of our clients and employees.

At one level this comes as no surprise. This was not a small bolt-on acquisition. DoubleClick has more than 800 employees and there is bound to be some overlap between the two companies. At the same time, it's another signal that Google is no longer on the same growth curve that it was a few years ago. As they integrate this acquisition and with pressure on their stock price, it will be interesting to see if the Google corporate culture begins to change.