Motorola workforce to drop by 10 percent, cuts being made in US, China and India

Google’s Motorola unit seems to be facing some hard times — according to an email acquired by the Wall Street Journal, up to ten percent of the division’s workforce is facing layoffs. “While we’re very optimistic about the new products in our pipeline, we still face challenges,” explained the email. High costs and losses in competitive markets are forcing the company to make staffing cuts. “These cuts are a continuation of the reductions we announced last summer,” a spokesman told the WSJ. “It’s obviously very hard for the employees concerned and we’re committed to helping them through this difficult transition. Much like the company’s August staff reduction, the new layoffs will effect workers in China, India and the US, reducing the team by about 1,200 employees overall. It’s a rocky start to the season, but one the company deems necessary to get it through the next generation of mobile devices. Hopefully it has something in store with enough “wow” factor to stave off future cuts.

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Source: Wall Street Journal

Motorola to cut its workforce by 20 percent, shutter a third of its offices worldwide

Motorola to cut its workforce by 20 percent, shutter a third of its offices worldwide

When Google acquired Motorola Mobility, Larry Page said the move would help “supercharge the Android ecosystem,” but first, the firm needs to reorganize. That seems to be starting — the company just announced that it will be closing a third of its 94 offices and laying off 20 percent of its workforce, including 40 percent of its vice presidents. The move will scale back its presence in Asia and India, says the New York Times, and will center its operations in Chicago, Sunnyvale and Beijing. The new, smaller Motorola will be working on less devices too, focusing on releasing a few high quality handsets each year as opposed to several dozen. Less phones means less parts, of course, and the firm says it will be dropping some suppliers and will be buying half as many components as a result. We’re all for the new Moto’s less-is-more approach and the potential it has to breed a new Nexus device, but Google’s already made it clear that it isn’t playing favorites with OEMs. Either way, it’s a start.

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Motorola to cut its workforce by 20 percent, shutter a third of its offices worldwide originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 13 Aug 2012 02:15:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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