They won't be widespread, but Google CEO Eric Schmidt said that the finalization of the DoubleClick deal, which won approval from EU regulators yesterday, will require some downsizing.

"As with most mergers, there may be reductions in headcount," Schmidt said on the Google blog. "We expect these to take place in the U.S. and possibly in other regions as well. We know that DoubleClick is built on the strength of its people. For this reason we'll strive to minimize the impact of this process on all of our clients and employees."

While the layoffs likely have more to do with eliminating redundancy than weakness at Google, the downsizing does come at a bad time for the search giant. In the past month, a misreading of Google's paid clicks data combined with a worsening U.S. economy prompted many to claim that the company -- and the rest of the industry -- was in real trouble. While those claims appear overblown, news that Google, which has seen exponential growth in the past few years, is laying off people could again spark a similar panic, according to Mashable, a blog that covers social networking. That blog called the looming layoffs "trimming a bit of the fat."