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Google slashes another 1200 jobs at Motorola Mobility

Allan Swann
March 8, 2013

Business still isn’t going well at Motorola Mobility, as new owner Google has announced a further 1200 jobs will be cut – on top of the 4000 cut back in August.

This accounts for around 10% of MM’s total workforce, as the company struggles to streamline and become profitable.

Spokesperson Niki Fenwick told Reuters that the cuts were a continuation of the reductions announced last year.

“It’s obviously very hard for the employees concerned, and we are committed to helping them through this difficult transition,” she added.

The Wall Street Journal also cited internal company emails which said the cuts would affect works in the US, China and India, stating:

“Our costs are too high, we’re operating in markets where we’re not competitive and we’re losing money.”

Google purchased the struggling mobile phone maker for US$12.5 billion last year – Google’s largest largest ever acquisition. While the majority of the purchase related to the acquisition of Motorola Mobility’s extensive patents, it is also understood that Motorola Mobility is in the process of building Google’s ‘Phone X’ – a super secret project that is expected to be unveiled at Google’s own conference, I/O in May/June.

Vice President and General Manager of Motorola Europe’s Sales and Marketing Andrew Morley wouldn’t be drawn on whether this was the case, but told What Mobile that ‘something special’ is coming later in the year.

“We’re working on stuff that’s really cool for release later in the year. It is going to turn a lot of heads.”

Since Google’s takeover, Motorola has severely streamlined its product offering, dropping from around 15 different products to just two (in the UK at least). It has also just released its Motorola Razr HD in the UK market (see our review here)

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