Webguild.org reports that Google is in the process of selling off Google Radio Automation. They had acquired this business for a total of $1 billion, inclusive of both cash and stock components. However this section of Google has been a complete failure right from the start as it failed to take off at all.

Now Mr. Vinod Khosla and Mayfield have raised $25 million to take over the Google Radio Automation business.

About one hundred employees working in the hardware and software departments of Google Radio Automation as well as those offering support to it are likely to be laid off.

In other areas of the company also Google has been laying off employees, and now their full time employees number 19,786 after 378 others were laid off in the second quarter of 2009.

On the other hand there are also reports that Google continues to hire highly skilled and talented professionals in some of its departments. But even this process has not been easy as the professionals have been asking for their market price, in spite of the recession and the consequent unemployment.

These demands have been putting Google in a rather tight spot as some of the older and senior employees are earning smaller amounts than what these new candidates are asking for, and that would eventually lead to unpleasantness among the old and new employees.

Michael Steib, Director of TV ads, for Google said, “the company is working on a technology that allows advertisers to buy ads across Google TV which sells on-air commercials, YouTube and video on other websites, through the same interface.”

Presently, Google is trying out this technology called ‘Google TV Ads Online’ with only a small group of selected advertisers.

If things go well the service may be launched in a few months.

Given the current financial situation, Google no doubt hopes that this new service will lure big brands to spend money on both the platforms, by making the process simpler. However, Shishir Mehrotra, YouTube’s Director of Product Management says, “it is also part of Google’s bigger vision of tying together various platforms to make it easier for advertisers to manage and measure their spending across traditional and online media.”

YouTube will however have to use the ads only during longer videos, such as TV shows or movies, as users will not like to watch long ads during short videos. It may also not be appropriate to run certain TV ads along with online videos, and Google will have to put in a lot of effort to achieve optimum results.

At present Google has only signed full length content deals with a few companies like CBS Corp.

Eventually Google may also be able to sell ads on Internet Delivered TV. YouTube is already having such a deal with Apple TV.

In the meantime Google is expected to layoff a further 200 staff members, which means, they probably expect the recession to continue for some time.

The audio ad service was launched in 2006 to enable the buying and selling of radio ads via Google AdWords. However, the search company now feel that in spite of investing a lot of resources, these services have not actually managed to create the kind of impact that was expected and it would be better to discontinue these services.

Google Audio Ads and AdSense for Audio will be phased out by the 31^st of May. Until then, publishers will be able to continue publishing their inventory. Google Radio Automation will be sold off to an interested party.

All is not quiet on the audio front, though. Google plans to concentrate on developing technology to deliver relevant ads for online streaming audio, where the audience numbers are increasing.

While it may be remembered that Google has also decided to shut down their Print Ads division only last month, they have stated that they will continue with their TV advertising initiatives as they can measure the audience response here and their advertisers can therefore judge ad effectiveness.

While some staff may be reassigned after the discontinuation of these services, it is expected that about 40 people will find themselves jobless as a result of this decision.

Even though Google executives maintain that they are closing the audio ads service due to failed expectations, if one looks at all their other recent cut-backs – print ads, followed closely by the closure of Jaiku, Dodgeball and Notebook – it looks suspiciously like a move to try and keep up the profit margin and tide over the financial meltdown by sticking to what they know best – search.

A few months ago, Google relocated some of their engineers from Phoenix-Arizona, to other places. Now another 70 employees from Austin-Texas, Trondheim in Norway and Lulea in Sweden are being asked to do the same. The reason behind this is to have fewer but better-coordinated engineering sites, which would help reduce overhead costs, while retaining the quality and efficiency of their services.

Another major step being taken by Google is to reduce the number of new recruits. Initially, they ended all the contracts they had with the outside sources that provided recruiting services to them. Now, however, they have gone a step further and decided to reduce the size of their recruiting department by as many as 100 people. The logic is, of course, that since they will be recruiting fewer people for quite some time, they will require less people to do so. However, the management is hopeful that most of these staff members will be reassigned to other appropriate jobs within the organisation itself.

While Google had laid off 300 employees of their subsidiary, DoubleClick, last year, the Times points out that this is the first time their own employees are being made redundant.

Google has also announced that they will discontinue some services that have not been doing too well or have been replaced by better apps. Amongst them are Jaiku, Dodgeball, Catalog Search, Google Notebook and uploads for Google Video.

Another indication of their cost cutting efforts is the fact that instead of the $1,000 bonus that employees get as a gift every year, this time they were just given a new T-Mobile G1 mobile phone.

Though these measures are relatively minor compared to the layoffs at Yahoo! and other tech companies in recent month, it is certainly bad news that the one company most experts thought would sail through the reecession unscathed is already trimming its workforce.

The worst is probably yet to come. Among other technology firms, Motorola has announced 4,000 job cuts, while there are unconfirmed rumors about the possibility of 15,000 layoffs at Microsoft.

Yahoo! announced their quarterly earnings yesterday. Profits dropped 64% compared to the same period last year, which was in line with analysts’ expectations. Revenues were up a bit, but the total forecast for 2008 had to be reduced.

The 10% reduction in jobs should help the company control costs and therefore increase profitability. The news was welcomed by Wall Street, as the Yahoo! stock rose in after-hours trading following the earnings announcement.

Rumours about the lay-offs were circulating since last week. Speculation arose that employees would not be offered anything more than the basic government-mandated severence package. Employee morale in the company has fallen once again this year, with the common sentiment among employees seeming to be “why bother?”

Chief Financial Officer Blake Jorgensen said the company is conserving cash, “to allow us to do some of the things we may be looking at.” This statement has fuelled further speculation that the possibility of Yahoo! acquiring AOL might actually be more than just an idle rumour.

Behind all the uncertainty, one thought is ever-present in all investors’ minds – Yahoo! should have taken Microsoft’s offer earlier this year, and run! With share prices at a five-year low at around $12.00, with little hope of returning to even $20, the $31 per share offer from Microsoft seems like a generous gift that they turned down.

Jerry Yang is definitely not the favourite person in many peoples’ books at present. Investors, employees and users on a number of online message boards and blogs are calling for his resignation and wondering if he will leave with the same severance package (or lack thereof) as the other unfortunate employees.

Yahoo! reported a net loss of $24.1 million or 4 cents per share for the third quarter. Although these figures are in sync with Wall Street estimates, they represent a sharp fall from the $8.1 million or 13 cents per share profit for the same period last year, which was also the time when Yahoo! had made big promises about their new advertising platform (code-named Panama). Needless to say, Panama did not live up to any of the hype and Yahoo! is now suffering the consequences.

This glaring downhill slide has forced those at the top to consider layoffs for about a thousand out of their estimated 14,300 employees in the immediate future. However according to CEO Jerry Yang, the company will continue investing heavily in some strategic departments like paid services, and advertising and search technology. Some of the laid off employees could reapply for jobs in the growth sectors.

Analysts at Wall Street expected advertising revenue to slide down, as it did. However, they did not expect the outlook to be as bleak as was painted by Yang. Revised projections for the fourth quarter place expected revenues at only $160 – 180 million against Wall streets estimated $190.8 million. Year end estimates have also been cut from $700 – 775 million to $688 – 708 million. Investors have taken these results negatively and Yahoo! share prices fell by over 10% in after-hours trading.

Egos at Yahoo! have taken a severe beating over the past few weeks, as they should. Their demise will be of their own making. During an interview with Fox Business News yesterday, Michael Arrington of TechCrunch said, “At some point Yahoo! might have to make a decision – to either lose the ad platform or partner with Google, or lose their company and get sold off to Microsoft or to a hedge fund in pieces.” This would surely be the most bitter pill for Yahoo! to swallow.

Arrington And Fox Business News Discuss Yahoo!