Google announced a reorganization on Thursday in which execs that lead its Search, Assistant and Ads business segments will report to new Search head Prabhakar Raghavan.
Raghavan will report directly to CEO Sundar Pichai.
The move comes as Google expects a potential hit from antitrust regulators who have targeted its Search, Ads and Android business units. The U.S. Department of Justice and nearly 50 Attorneys are expected to bring a lawsuit in the next few months and have discussed actions of potentially breaking up the company.
"For some time now, I've been thinking about how we could bring the voice of the user more clearly into our products so we can be more helpful to them," Pichai said in an email to employees Thursday, which Search Engine Land first reported and Google confirmed to CNBC.
"I think we've done this well in the context of the Covid crisis, delivering useful information and experiences across so many products and surfaces. While there are many separate teams working on different parts of the user journey, from the user's perspective, it's just Google helping."
Google declined to comment further on the changes.
A closer look at who's moving where
- Raghavan, who was previously SVP of Ads, Commerce and Payments, will oversee Search, Google Ads, Assistant, Geo, and Commerce and Payments teams. "He's spent more than two decades obsessing over algorithms and ranking, and his association with Google Search predates… Google," Pichai said.
- Raghavan takes over some duties from Ben Gomes, who will lead Google's "learning efforts," like Google for Education, which saw a surge in usage during Covid-19.
- Jerry Dischler will lead the Ads organization to support Prabhakar.
- Jen Fitzpatrick, who spent the last ten years leading the Maps team as head of Google Geo, will oversee the Core and Corporate Engineering teams, which consists of 8,000 employees. Pichai said the role will make use of her knowledge of privacy.
- Liz Reid and Dane Glasgow will both lead Geo.
- Gomes and Fitzpatrick's senior leads from Search and Geo will report to Raghavan.
"I realize that any change right now might be harder to process at a time when everything outside of Google feels very uncertain as well, so please do take care of yourself first," Pichai said in a note announcing the changes.
