Google Inc. (GOOG) Takes Ax to DailyDeal Staffing

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is well-known for cutting fat from its various entities – the most noteworthy recent example was the shaving of thousands of jobs from Motorola Mobility, which it acquired earlier this year. Now, the company is taking the layoff ax to one of its older acquisitions, the Germany-based DailyDeal online-coupon firm.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) showed a little more patience with DailyDeal than it did with Motorola Mobility, as DailyDeal has been part of the Google stable for more than a year since being acquired for a mere $114 million. However, Google did confirm that is is laying off a large number of DailyDeal employees – including some senior executives – in sales and marketing at the firm, most likely in an effort to integrate the that part of the business into Google’s larger sales and marketing empire. While no specific details about the number of layoffs, the goal of the remaining DailyDeal staff is to marry its opportunities seamlessly with the various Google products – most noteworthy the Android operating system, Google Maps, Adwords and Adwords Express.

Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) entered a difficult market with its acquisition, a market that has been dominated by Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ:GRPN) and has since been joined by Amazon.com Inc. (NASDAQ:AMZN), but it’s not just the competition that is tough. The industry in general has struggled, as Groupon’s stock has not done well despite decent revenue numbers, there have been several key departures t companies – including a couple at Groupon Inc. (NASDAQ:GRPN) with no explanation – as well as some reports of unfavorable working conditions. And the Global Daily Deal Association admitted a “lack of merchant and consumer confidence” in the online-coupon space, and the group is working on a conduct code in hopes to restoring trust and save the space online.

For now, it seems Google Inc. (NASDAQ:GOOG) is keeping the daily-deal opportunity to try to make it viable. Investors like hedge-fund manager Chase Coleman of Tiger Global Management LLC will likely be interested to see if Google can succeed where Groupon and others have not had much success.