Close
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
Read Down
Sign in
Close
Welcome!Log into your account
Forgot your password?
Read Down
Password recovery
Recover your password
Close
Search
Menu
Search
  • Latest News
  • Cybersecurity
  • Big Data and Analytics
  • Cloud
  • Mobile
  • Networking
  • Storage
  • Applications
  • IT Management
  • Small Business
  • Development
  • Database
  • Servers
  • Android
  • Apple
  • Innovation
  • Blogs
  • PC Hardware
  • Reviews
  • Search Engines
  • Virtualization
More
    Home Latest News
    • Mobile

    Google’s Motorola Begins Cutting 1,200 Employees

    By
    Michelle Maisto
    -
    March 8, 2013
    Share
    Facebook
    Twitter
    Linkedin

      Google-owned Motorola has begun laying off some 1,200 employees, or about 10 percent of its workforce.

      According to a March 8 report in The Wall Street Journal, the latest round of job cuts is part of a larger workforce-reduction plan announced after Google bought Motorola’s Mobility hardware unit last year.

      “These cuts are a continuation of the reductions we announced last summer,” a Motorola spokesperson told The Journal. “It’s obviously very hard for the employees concerned, and we are committed to helping them through this difficult transition.”

      In August 2012, three months after the $12.5 billion acquisition, Motorola Mobility said it would lay off 4,000 employees, or 20 percent of its 20,000 workers. At the end of 2012, the Motorola unit reported that it had just over 11,000 employees, not including the employees of its Home Business, which it’s in the process of selling to the Arris Group for $2.35 billion. That division is said to employ about 7,000.

      Motorola alerted its employees to the new cuts earlier this week, writing in a companywide email obtained by The Journal, “while we’re very optimistic about the new products in our pipeline, we still face challenges.”

      The statement added that Motorola’s “costs are too high, we’re operating in markets where we’re not competitive and we’re losing money.”

      The move will include job losses in the United States, China and India.

      Motorola has failed to be profitable since Google purchased it by many accounts for its patent portfolio—a critical asset in a market in which patent-infringement litigation is everyday news. Google has also called Motorola an insurance policy for its Android operating system, which Samsung has been the most successful at proliferating.

      Still, Motorola executives continue to insist that they’re running a tightened ship. The company introduced the Droid Razr M, Razr HD and Razr Maxx HD in September 2012, with Dennis Woodwide, a former Googler and now the head of Motorola, telling the audience, “The new Motorola starts today.”

      Comments made March 5 by Nikesh Arora, senior vice president and chief business officer at Google, at a dB Media and Telecom Conference seemed to enforce the idea of a new Motorola, but instead may have hinted at the additional streamlining to come.

      When asked by an analyst how Motorola plans to compete against emerging mobile platforms like Mozilla’s Firefox OS, Arora answered: “I think if you look hard, you’ll see how acutely they’ve streamlined the business over the last nine months. We’re already focusing on what’s important … [and] focusing on how to run the company in a streamlined way, because we believe it’s important to be nimble in that space of smartphones, because there are a lot of people out there who are trying to innovate.”

      Motorola is rumored to be working on a device, called the “X Phone,” that will enable it to take on the iPhone and Samsung’s high-end Galaxy devices. It’s rumored to feature a large battery, an excellent camera and a durable design.

      On Jan. 22, Google announced that Motorola Mobile posted an operating loss of $353 million, compared with a loss of $152 million the year before.

      “In today’s multi-screen world,” said Google CEO Larry Page, “we face tremendous opportunities as a technology company focused on user benefits. It’s an incredibly exciting time to be at Google.”

      Follow Michelle Maisto on Twitter.

      Avatar
      Michelle Maisto
      Michelle Maisto has been covering the enterprise mobility space for a decade, beginning with Knowledge Management, Field Force Automation and eCRM, and most recently as the editor-in-chief of Mobile Enterprise magazine. She earned an MFA in nonfiction writing from Columbia University, and in her spare time obsesses about food. Her first book, The Gastronomy of Marriage, if forthcoming from Random House in September 2009.

      MOST POPULAR ARTICLES

      Android

      Samsung Galaxy XCover Pro: Durability for Tough...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 5, 2020 0
      Have you ever dropped your phone, winced and felt the pain as it hit the sidewalk? Either the screen splintered like a windshield being...
      Read more
      Cloud

      Why Data Security Will Face Even Harsher...

      Chris Preimesberger - December 1, 2020 0
      Who would know more about details of the hacking process than an actual former career hacker? And who wants to understand all they can...
      Read more
      Cybersecurity

      How Veritas Is Shining a Light Into...

      eWEEK EDITORS - September 25, 2020 0
      Protecting data has always been one of the most important tasks in all of IT, yet as more companies become data companies at the...
      Read more
      Big Data and Analytics

      How NVIDIA A100 Station Brings Data Center...

      Zeus Kerravala - November 18, 2020 0
      There’s little debate that graphics processor unit manufacturer NVIDIA is the de facto standard when it comes to providing silicon to power machine learning...
      Read more
      Apple

      Why iPhone 12 Pro Makes Sense for...

      Wayne Rash - November 26, 2020 0
      If you’ve been watching the Apple commercials for the past three weeks, you already know what the company thinks will happen if you buy...
      Read more
      eWeek


      Contact Us | About | Sitemap

      Facebook
      Linkedin
      RSS
      Twitter
      Youtube

      Property of TechnologyAdvice.
      Terms of Service | Privacy Notice | Advertise | California - Do Not Sell My Information

      © 2021 TechnologyAdvice. All Rights Reserved

      Advertiser Disclosure: Some of the products that appear on this site are from companies from which TechnologyAdvice receives compensation. This compensation may impact how and where products appear on this site including, for example, the order in which they appear. TechnologyAdvice does not include all companies or all types of products available in the marketplace.

      ×