Google's cybersecurity project named "Chronicle" is imploding in trouble and some employees feel its management "abandoned and betrayed" the original vision, media reports said.
Chronicle's CEO and Chief Security Officer have already left, and the Chief Technology Officer is leaving later this month while other key officials are eyeing an exit, according to the Motherboard.
In a blog post announcing his departure, Stephen Gillett, CEO of Chronicle said he is leaving the entire Alphabet organization after working there for 13 years. While he didn’t specify why he left, the motherboard report hints towards him leaving due to internal issues in the company.
In June this year, Chronicle lost its status as an independent entity when it formally joined Google to become part of its Cloud security offerings.
One of the reasons why it was folded back into Google is the fact that staff compensation became a sore point, because Google reportedly didn't adjust Chronicle staffers' salaries and stock packages, which were lower than those for other Google employees.
Originally announced as an independent start up in early 2018 by Google's parent company Alphabet, Chronicle was supposed to "revolutionise" cybersecurity.
It was supposed to be an independent start up with its own contracts and policies -- at least, that's what CEO Stephen Gillett wrote when the business was launched.
Employees have left because of a combination of Chronicle losing its original vision, a distant CEO, a lack of clarity about Chronicle's future, and disappointment that the start-up has been swallowed into Google, according to interviews with five current and former employees, the Motherboard report added.
As per the report, most employees found out about the company being folded into Google only on the day of the announcement.
"People keep quitting. Sales doesn’t know what to do since there’s no real product roadmap anymore. Engineering is depressed for the same reason, folks have been finding jobs at startups or transferring to other parts of Google," the motherboard report quotes a current employee as saying.