Published on Aug 13, 2012 by Euronews : Motorola Mobility is to cut 20 percent of its workforce - 4,000 people - and shut nearly a third of its offices worldwide.That word came from the internet search engine Google which bought the mobile phone maker last year for 10 billion euros. The company said it wanted "to return Motorola's mobile devices unit to profitability, after it lost money in 14 of the last 16 quarters".
According to a report in the New York Times it will exit unprofitable markets and stop making low-end handsets, focusing on a few phones instead of dozens.Motorola Mobility, which has 94 offices throughout the world, will centre research and development in Chicago, Sunnyvale, California and Beijing.
Google expects to take severance-related charges of up to $275 million (223 million euros) mostly in the third quarter, it said in a filing with the US Securities and Exchange Commission.It expects to record the remaining severance-related costs by the end of 2012 and said it could also incur other related restructuring charges mainly in the third quarter.
The company said it could not currently predict the amount of these other charges but added that they could be significant."Motorola is committed to helping them (the employees) through this difficult transition and will be providing generous severance packages, as well as outplacement services to help people find new jobs," a Google spokeswoman said.
