Eric Schmidt: Brexit is 'unlikely' to impact Google's British operations

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eric schmidt google chairman

Axel Schmidt/Getty Images

Alphabet executive chairman Eric Schmidt.

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Google has no immediate plans to reduce the size of its UK operations as a result of Brexit, according to Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google parent company Alphabet.

The UK voted to leave the European Union on June 23, leaving the nation's economic future uncertain. Firms like Vodafone and easyJet are evaluating whether some jobs may have to be relocated, while Goldman Sachs said some banks may also downsize their UK offices.

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But Google has no immediate plans to pull out of the UK following Brexit.

"I think it unlikely that Google would change our allocation based on this," Schmidt told a Paris tech conference.

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"We have large operations in Ireland, in Britain, France, Germany and so forth. You never know, but it would be hard for me to imagine that we'd make much of a change."

Google employs thousands of people across four sizable offices in London but the search giant has been stalling on a huge £1 billion mega-office in King's Cross for some time now, possibly because it's waiting to see how the political landscape pans out in Europe.

In 2013, Google said it would build a new UK HQ that would open in 2016, with capacity for around 5,000 Googlers. However, the initial plans were scrapped for being "too boring" and the company is yet to start building. In order to bridge the gap, it's taken a lease out on another large office over the road.

Schmidt received an applause from the Viva Technology Conference when he said he did not understand the outcome of the EU referendum.

He called for a seamless European regulatory framework for digital business regardless of Brexit. "What I would hope is ... as common a platform as possible in digital," he said. "I don't want anything to splinter that market further."

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