Latest Motorola Mobility layoffs to mostly occur outside of U.S.
BY DAVID ROEDER Business Reporter droeder@suntimes.com March 8, 2013 12:26PM
Google owned Motorola Mobility will lay off 1,200 workers in the United States, India and China. | Getty Images
Updated: April 11, 2013 6:51AM
Motorola Mobility, the money-losing maker of cellphones that Google Inc. bought last year, said Friday it will cut 1,200 jobs, about 10 percent of its work force, mostly outside of the United States.
The layoffs are in addition to its reduction of 4,000 jobs worldwide that it announced last August. Some 750 of those cuts came from its base in Libertyville.
“It’s obviously very hard for the employees concerned, and we are committed to helping them through this difficult transition,” said spokeswoman Danielle McNally. She said the company will provide severance and other help.
Google paid $12.5 billion for the company last year, a value enlarged by patents Motorola Mobility owns. With its push into making hardware, Google felt the patents would help as it challenges Apple Inc. and other phone and computer makers.
But Motorola Mobility’s losses have weighed on Google’s earnings. For the fourth quarter of last year, Motorola Mobility lost $353 million, five times its total from the same period in 2011, on revenue that was down 40 percent.
Google reported that at the end of 2012, Motorola Mobility had 11,113 employees. The Wall Street Journal first reported the new round of cuts, quoting from a company email to employees that said, “our costs are too high, we’re operating in markets where we’re not competitive and we’re losing money.”
The layoffs will not affect the Motorola Home business, which makes TV set-top boxes, McNally said. Google sold that unit in December to Arris Group Inc. for $2.35 billion.
Motorola Mobility is still planning to transfer its Libertyville work force to downtown’s Merchandise Mart. The move to the mart’s top four floors is scheduled to occur this summer.
