Google cuts jobs at Waze and continues merger of mapping products

Google is cutting jobs at its Waze mapping service as it merges that division with its own mapping products. This was reported by CNBC.

Chris Phillips, who heads Google’s mapping division called Geo, said in an email to employees that the company is changing Waze’s strategy to include Google ads instead of using a separate ad system. The move will lead to layoffs.

“We have decided to transition Waze’s ads monetization to be managed by the Global Business Organization (GBO), similar to Google Maps,” Phillips wrote. “Unfortunately, this will result in a reduction of Waze Ads monetization-focused roles in sales, marketing, operations and analytics.”

The company hopes to create a more scalable and optimized Waze Ads product. At the same time, it will close the current Waze Ads product while work continues on creating a new Waze Ads based on Google Ads.

The company will soon notify advertisers and partners of the changes and announce plans for next steps. Google confirmed the layoff and other details from Phillips’ letter.

We will remind that Google bought Waze for about $1.3 billion in 2013. According to internal documents, this unit has more than 500 employees.