TCI Fund Management asked Google parent Alphabet to cut costs, reduce losses and sack overpaid staff, urging it to join its peers Amazon and Meta that recently laid off thousands.
London-based TCI, which has a $6 billion stake in Alphabet, requested Chief Executive Sundar Pichai in a letter to take “aggressive actions” amid the current economic conditions.
“We are writing to express our view that the cost base of Alphabet is too high and management needs to take aggressive action,” TCI wrote. “The company has too many employees and the cost per employee is too high,” especially referring to Alphabet’s Other Bets division that incubated Waymo.
TCI wants the Other Bets unit to reduce operating losses by 50%. The segment generated $3 billion in revenue over the past five years but lost about $20 billion.
Despite announcing a slowdown in hiring in July, Alphabet has refrained from trimming headcounts like other tech giants. Amazon is preparing to lay off 10,000 employees this week, and Meta laid off about 11,000 employees last week. Twitter, under Elon Musk’s new ownership, sacked close to 3,700 employees earlier this month.