Internet search giant Google Inc is planning to cut nearly 200 jobs in sales and marketing operations worldwide, as the entity grapples with the economic slowdown.

"...We have informed Googlers that we plan to reduce the number of roles within our sales and marketing organisations by just under 200 globally," Omid Kordestani, Google's Vice President (Global Sales and Business Development ) said in a blog posting on Thursday.

Google had little over 20,000 employees at the end of 2008. In recent months, Google has laid off about 100 employees and also cut down on perks, primarily in the wake of the financial meltdown.

The company has significant presence in India.

According to Kordestani, the entity has created overlapping organisations in some areas, which not only duplicate effort but also complicate the "decision-making process".

"That makes our teams less effective and efficient than they should be. In addition, we over-invested in some areas in preparation for the growth trends we were experiencing at the time," Kordestani noted.

The affected employees would be given the opportunity to find another position in the company itself.

"We will give each person time to try and find another position at Google, as well as outplacement support, and provide severance packages for those who leave the company," the blog posting said.

In January, American magazine Fortune had said that Google has 350 vacancies for engineering, marketing, product management and legal sales.

Earlier this week, Google said that its top three executives -- co-founders Larry Page, Sergey Brin and chief executive Eric Schmidt have voluntarily taken only one dollar in salaries last year.

"Eric, Larry and Sergey have voluntarily elected to receive only nominal cash compensation. Their primary compensation continues to come from returns on their ownership stakes in Google," it said in a filing to the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Consequently, the company's top executives Schmidt, Page and Brin do not receive any salary or plan-based bonus other than one dollar per year, Google noted.

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