Motorola Sheds 800 Jobs in Preparation for Google Acquistion

[dgstorm]

Motorola Mobility is cutting 800 jobs in order to make the company leaner and more efficient for the upcoming acquisition by Google, according to Bloomberg. This job-cutting will initially cost the company $27 million in severance and $4 million for facility closures, but is necessary in the long run to reign in future costs and maximize efficiency for the company.

Interestingly, Jennifer Weyrauch-Erickson, a spokeswoman for Motorola Mobility, indicated that the efforts are unrelated to the proposed acquisition. She also said, “Motorola Mobility continues to focus on improving its financial performance by taking actions to manage the company’s costs.”

Motorola posted increased sales and beat analysts predictions last quarter, but has still hemorrhaged $32 Million dollars, which was an improvement from the previous quarter. As reported previously, Google is buying Motorola in order to gain access to their technology patents, so that they can better defend Android manufacturers against patent infringement lawsuits. The Motorola shareholders board will have a final vote on the acquisition on November 17th of this year.

Source: Bloomberg/Businessweek

 

[dezymond]

wow that is a huge chunk of jobs being cut. wonder if Google will hire some of the workers who got cut back.

 

[561427]

Does this means Google now controls the fate of the RAZR? Is the RAZR now a google backed phone? why would they release the Galaxy Nexus and then have the Droid RAZR on the market? I just really wanna know if Google will now control the RAZR and hopefully unlock the bootloader and provide ICS and updates quickly.

 

[akhenax]

...and here I thought Google buying Motorola was a good thing. I wonder how high the unemployment rate will go now? Also, were these jobs cut in the U.S. or in China?

 

[TheOldFart]

Does this means Google now controls the fate of the RAZR? Is the RAZR now a google backed phone? why would they release the Galaxy Nexus and then have the Droid RAZR on the market? I just really wanna know if Google will now control the RAZR and hopefully unlock the bootloader and provide ICS and updates quickly.

From what I remember reading when this was announced in August, Google will allow Motorola to control their operations. Google is mainly buying Motorola to gain access to the something like 17,000 Motorola patents to allow them to fight Apple and Microsoft.

 

[Willyammer]

Layoffs are the easy way to go. Why not save some $$ by paring back come C-level salaries and use your people more efficiently instead of laying them off.

 

[Heywood]

Google is mainly buying Motorola to gain access to the something like 17,000 Motorola patents to allow them to fight Apple and Microsoft.

Yay!

 

[Xplorer4x4]

Yay!

Nay imo. With google taking over it would hopefully mean more openness/lees locked boot loaders and such. Google created Android as an open source project, it would make sense that with them more firmly in control, we would see devices shipped with pure android and less restrictions.