Less than a week after Google said it closed its long and drawn out acquisition of AdMob, roughly a tenth of the hot mobile-advertising startup's employees are packing their bags as part of the integration process.
“The Google and AdMob teams are actively working together to figure out the specific details of our integration. With a few exceptions, all AdMob employees are making the transition,” said Nicole Leverich, an AdMob (and now Google) spokesperson. Leverich didn't say whether they were part of a single team or distributed across the company.
From what we hear, about 8 percent of the company's 160 employees had to go as a normal part of the acquisition process. Google has certain specifications for different positions and candidates are re-screened for them as part of the mergers and acquisitions process.
More importantly, it looks like AdMob founder Omar Hamoui will get a fairly senior role reporting to Susan Wojcicki, who oversees AdWords and AdSense and sits on its powerful operating committee. It also means he's outside the purview of the company's other rising star, Vic Gundotra, who runs the company's mobile team. That said, this structure is tentative and subject to change as both companies figure out the acquisition process.
Google and AdMob struggled through six months of review from regulators at the Federal Trade Commission before finally closing the $750 million deal last month. Combined, the two should have a little more than 20 percent of the mobile ad market, according to one measurement -- though critics of the deal pointed to other numbers suggesting that understated Google and AdMob's combined control of the market.