Google's Headcount Soars 57% To 19,000 (GOOG)

Dan Frommer | May 12, 2008 7:17 PM

google-pool.jpgWe may have to recalculate our estimate for Google's food costs: While the company has said it would start to ease off on its multi-year hiring binge, headcount continues to soar. At the end of Q1, Google (GOOG) had 19,156 full-time employees, according to a SEC filing. That's a 57% year-over-year increase, from 12,238 at the end of Q1 2007.

About 1,500 of the new employees came from the company's acquisition of DoubleClick. So without the deal, Google's headcount would have jumped 44% year-over-year.

But that's about right: Q1 revenues jumped 42% year-over-year to $5.2 billion.

See Also:
Google: Getting Goose Eggs From YouTube, Six Other Businesses
Google's Ginormous Free Food Budget: $7,530 Per Googler, $72 Million A Year

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37 Comments

jw said:
typo: "While the compayn"
Dan Frommer said:
Thanks, fixed. Crowd-sourced copy editing at work!
Gordon said:
do they need all of these people? what do all of these people do? fat and happy today but what about tomorrow?

"Death can come swiftly to a market leader. By the time you have lost the positive-feedback cycle it's often too late to change what you've been doing, and all of the elements of a negative spiral come into play." - Bill Gates, "The Road Ahead", Chapter 3

"In this business, by the time you realize you're in trouble, it's too late to save yourself. Unless you're running scared all the time, you're gone." - Bill Gates

"Today's winning technology is tomorrow's sinkhole." - Bill Gross
R-man said:
Henry, wouldn't you love to take a corporate raider's perspective to their income statement? There's doubt that you'd find that 10% of their people drive 90% of the revenue and profit. The other 15,000 people are on speculative projects that will just suck down cash and never see the light of day. If they were smart, they'd forget the ego-driven strategy of plucking Microsoft's nerves, and rather focus on four key opportunities (search, email, video, and maps), hold headcount at 5,000 people and be the most profitable company in history. By my math it would add $2B in profit to the bottomline, and $80B its market cap (and that assumes no premium for the most profitable company in history).
joseph031 said:
All the know-it-all geniuses over here, should get off their rear ends and do something instead of monday quarterbacking google. No one has the knowledge to criticize a market leader unless they've done something bigger themselves.
Rav (URL) said:
@R-man

Talk about killing the goose that lays golden eggs! You have a perfect plan! I'm glad that the powers-be at GOOG don't think like you.

@Gordon

All those statements are very appropriate for bloated organizations like MSFT / IBM. GOOG is still quite lean considering its growth rate, revenue and profitability. They are very selective about hiring and had no hesitation letting go a significant portion of DCLK employees, at the first chance they got. Hiring smart folks and spending on R&D is a very good long-term strategy for a company like GOOG.

Gordon said:
"They have a fantastic cash cow. They need a goat and a chicken." - Marc Benioff
Henry Blodget said:
R-man...interesting analysis.

I have to say, at this point, if the operating profit gain would only be $2 billion, I'd rather have them investing. Certainly seems as though they could do it more efficiently, but some of those projects are eventually going to pay off. Search, meanwhile, is coming to the end of its product cycle.

The spending that I don't understand is the CAPEX. Now approaching $1 billion a quarter. Even a modest improvement there, and free cash flow goes through roof.
Frank said:
The question is what they are doing in GOOG? are their jobs still interesting? I have a couple of friends, PhD students fresh out of school, what they do at GOOG is writing configuration files, release and deploy softwares, what a boring job.
Erik Schwartz said:
For the first time this fall it's likely that googlers will start vesting flat to underwater.

This makes for an interesting management challenge that they have not yet faced.
ff said:
It will be nice to work for those early, rich Googlers. :)

Seriously, have you seen the Fortune article?

Where does Google go next?

Yes, it's making gobs of money. Yes, it's full of smart people. Yes, it's a wonderful place to work. So why are so many people leaving?

http://money.cnn.com/2008/05/09/technology/where_does_google_go.fortune/index.htm?postversion=2008051212
Vic said:
This information was in the 1Q earnings press release so why point it out as new information. Surely there were other tidbits in the 10Q!
joe Blowit said:
DoubleClick folks are only 1,500 in size, but those fat fucks eat like a company the size of WalMart. Google will spend a few billion more feeding that blood-suckers.

noblow said:
The question is what they are doing in GOOG?

Yep, that's a VERY GOOD question.

I think they are searching for the next (overhyped) product. So far, Google is still a 1.5-trick pony, with profits originating mostly from their text-ads service and search as a sales tool.

Maps? Irrelevant.
Gmail? Irrelevant.
Base? Highly irrelevant.
Froogle? Discontinued.
Youtube? Lossmaking, with a big sword that still sways over the company

Erm. IMO, they are desparate to find the next goldmine.
TJHooker said:
...erm... isn't every company desperate to find the next goldmine...?
test said:
How about wireless?
NotAGoogler said:
Only thing keeping Google ads going is the Google ban on paid internet advertising. The only place you can buy paid ads these days is on Google. Google only mission is to destroy all businesses on the web so that they can be the last one standing.
qcgeneral.com (URL) said:
Someone asked where Google is going, I know. Google landed the 700 mhz contract from the U.S. Government, and the are going to reveal there super powered cell phone in about 6 years. This cell phone will be so powerful that you can load it with so much information it will be unpresidented. People will be running their businesses from this cell phone. Eventually you will not be able to buy or sell anything with out being a part of the Google network. Everyone will have this in there hand. I think Goog was seen by past prophets as 666. And Now, Deep Thoughts. By Jack Handey.
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Judy (URL) said:
What they need is the Dinosaur. the T-rex.
Treximet the google. See it at www.Treximet.net.
Thanks for the hosting by the way.

The Treximet team
Judy (URL) said:
What they need is the Dinosaur. the T-rex.
Treximet the google. See it at www.Treximet.net.
Thanks for the hosting by the way.

The Treximet team
Douglas (URL) said:
This company produces outstanding products and treats their employees like a company should; some would say they go a little overboard. I love Google and will continue to support them!
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640-802 Google's Headcount Soars 57% To 19,000 (GOOG) Make a long story short. Don't pass up a golden opportunity.
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