Motorola Mobility to face 4,000 job cuts

Motorola Mobility is to slash 20 per cent of its workforce as its new parent Google seeks to refocus the handset-maker on fewer markets and a slimmed down product portfolio.

Some 4,000 jobs will be cut in total – a third in the US – while a third of its 94 offices worldwide will be closed. Google closed its US$12.5 billion acquisition of Motorola in May, a deal motivated in large part by Google’s desire to take over Motorola’s rich portfolio of wireless patents.

Dennis Woodside, Motorola’s new chief executive (installed by Google), confirmed the restructuring plans in an interview with the New York Times.

He said that the vendor also planned to cut the number of devices Motorola makes from the 27 it launched last year to just a few high end models.

“We’re excited about the smartphone business,” said Woodside. “The Google business is built on a wired model, and as the world moves to a pretty much completely wireless model over time, it’s really going to be important for Google to understand everything about the mobile consumer.”

Motorola Mobility lost US$233 million in its first six weeks under Google, according to Google’s latest quarterly results.