Verily CEO Stephen Gillett informed staff via email on Wednesday that the business would be restructuring and letting go 15% of its workforce. The cutoff is made to become economically secure for the parent company Alphabet. The job cut will impact 240 individuals, a Verily spokesman revealed.
One of Google’s sibling firms, Verily, is focused on the health sciences and is under Alphabet’s “Other Bets” division. Following a wave of layoffs in the business and concerns about a recession, it’s the first documented layoff to affect Google’s parent company. Although Google has survived the widespread layoffs that have affected other internet firms like Meta, staff members have grown concerned that they might be the next, according to CNBC.
Given that Verily’s physical offices will be closed on Thursday and Friday, Gillett’s email directed colleagues to work remotely for the remainder of the week. It read Those who are in the office today can return home now,” adding that this advice also applies to staff who work from Google offices.
One of Verily’s efforts was a contact lens that might identify diabetes symptoms, but it was put on hold in 2018, and another one was Project Baseline, which aimed to collect health data from research groups. A platform for Covid-19 testing was also made available, which former President Trump emphasised at the onset of the outbreak.
Verily received $800 million in outside funding
According to CFO Ruth Porat in 2019, several of Alphabet’s Other Bets have their equity structures, and Verily has been soliciting money from outside investors for a while. Verily received $800 million in outside funding from Temasek in 2017 and has since raised more than $2 billion through further equity rounds.
According to the emails, which CNBC reviewed, Gillett said that the reductions are due to team “redundancy” and programmes that have been abandoned. It does not yet reveal details, only that it will provide severance and outplacement assistance “in the coming weeks and months.”
According to Gillett’s message, some aspects of the firm would be “reducing or sunsetting” while investment is increased in others. Specifically, Verily will discontinue some early-stage products, including “remote patient monitoring for heart failure and microneedles for drug delivery,” the email states. “We cannot do everything and have had to make some difficult choices,” wrote Gillett. According to the email, the company would have an all-hands meeting on January 18 to go over the changes in more detail.
The resignation of Jordi Parramon, president of Verily’s device companies who had been with the company “since its early days,” is also mentioned in Gillett’s message, along with other senior changes.
According to the statement, the business will inform laid-off workers through email with the subject line “Important Update Regarding Your Role” sent to their Verily and personal emails. An email with the subject “Your Role at Verily” will be sent to those still employed. On Wednesday or Thursday, the memo said that those who work abroad would receive communication from their corporate executives.
