Google overhauls South China and Australasia sales and marketing operations

Sources close to the company say Google Australasia will close its Melbourne office and consolidate its workings in Australia and New Zealand in an effort to streamline its regional sales operations.

According to local reports, the consolidation will see the loss of 15 positions.

Sources confirm that Google’s Hong Kong office will also see a loss of six staff members, and the office will work more in-depth with Google’s South China region in the future to improve sales.

In Hong Kong, affected employees will be given the opportunity to find alternative positions at within the company, the sources continued, adding that Google in Singapore and Southeast Asia will not be affected by layoffs.

Omid Kordestani, SVP of global sales and business development, said on Google’s official blog: “When companies grow that quickly it's almost impossible to get everything right  - and we certainly didn't. In some areas we've created overlapping organisations which not only duplicate effort but also complicate the decision-making process. That makes our teams less effective and efficient than they should be. In addition, we over-invested in some areas in preparation for the growth trends we were experiencing at the time.”

Google has more than 20,000 employees worldwide.