Google to cut 25 percent of U.S. DoubleClick jobs: source : US Business

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Google Inc plans to layoff up to one-quarter of the U.S. employees of its recently acquired DoubleClick unit and is considering layoffs overseas, a source familiar with the plans said on Thursday.

The source said the final number of jobs to be cut and the targets of those cuts are still to be determined but said they could reach as much as one-quarter of the roughly 1,200-strong U.S. workforce at DoubleClick. The advertising technology company employs another 300 staff outside the United States.

The layoffs will be spread across DoubleClick's business, including an unspecified number at the company's Performics search marketing business, which the company said on Wednesday it planned to run separately with an eye to selling it off.

Chief Executive Eric Schmidt had signaled at the time of the $3.4 billion deal's closing on March 11 that layoffs were possible. "As with most mergers, there may be reductions in headcount," Schmidt said in a company statement at the time.

(Reporting by Eric Auchard; Editing by Braden Reddall)

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