I think what he's trying to get across here is that there is a significant amount of overhead that is getting in the way of Google's own culture. Breaking it up

I think what he's trying to get across here is that there is a significant amount of overhead that is getting in the way of Google's own culture. Breaking it up into a conglomerate of smaller pieces would typically _increase_ this cruft -- Microsoft even in its current state is a good example of this. At Google however, this would _optimize_ the system instead, making it leaner, meaner, and as passionate as the employees it is losing. (The blog post doesn't mention it clearly, but the author is an ex-Googler)