You know that times are hard when a company starts to shed part of their workforce in an effort to remain lean and efficient. Google, the Internet search giant who acquired Motorola Mobility in May earlier this year, has moved to remove approximately one fifth of the workforce over at Motorola Mobility in order to return this particular mobile device unit to profitability – and this move might be considered as unavoidable, especially after Motorola Mobility lost money in fourteen of the last sixteen quarters. That is definitely not a record to be proud of, and this would translate to around 4,000 people losing their jobs out of around 20,000 folks.
Good to know that two thirds of those reductions will happen outside of the US, and apart from that, Motorola has plans to consolidate (which is a nice way of saying closing down) around one third of their 90 facilities worldwide. According to a Motorola Mobility filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, the company will “shift its emphasis from feature phones to more innovative and profitable devices.” Do you think Motorola has arrived at the end of their rope to be in the position where they are in today?