Mountain View, Calif. - Google (NASD: GOOG) will lay off about 300 employees from its recently acquired online ad firm DoubleClick, or about a quarter of the company's U.S. staff, The New York Times reported, citing a person with direct knowledge of the plan.

"Since our acquisition of DoubleClick closed on March 11, we have been working to match and align DoubleClick employees in the U.S. with our organizational plan for the business," the company said in a statement.

"As with many mergers, this review has resulted in a reduction in headcount at the acquired company."

Google will also reportedly sell off DoubleClick's Performics Search Marketing unit.

The company is expected to offer some of the laid off employees transitional roles; Google ended 2007 with a total of 16,805 employees worldwide.

Related Links:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/04/03/technology/03google.html

http://www.doubleclick.com