http://allthingsd.com/20120812/google-taking-the-ax-to-motorola-cutting-20-percent-of-staff-or-4000-jobs/
Google Taking the Ax to Motorola, Cutting 20 Percent of Staff, or 4,000 Jobs
August 12, 2012 at 10:06 pm PT
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While still not going into details on its product plans, Google is ready to say one thing about the future of Motorola under its stewardship. It will be a smaller endeavor.
The company is cutting roughly 4,000 jobs, 20 percent of the company’s roughly 20,000 workers, according to a source familiar with the company’s plans. About two-thirds of the reductions will be from outside the U.S.
“While Motorola expects this strategy to create new opportunities and help return its mobile devices unit to profitability, it understands how hard these changes will be for the employees concerned,” a Motorola representative told AllThingsD. “Motorola is committed to helping them through this difficult transition and will be providing generous severance packages, as well as outplacement services to help people find new jobs.”
The company also plans to close about a third of Motorola’s 94 facilities, with a focus on keeping hubs in Sunnyvale, Calif., Chicago and Beijing. It also announced two weeks ago that Motorola would move its Libertyville, Ill., facilities into downtown Chicago’s Merchandise Mart building.
Google has made a number of leadership changes since closing the Motorola acquisition in May, but has yet to go into detail on its product strategy, beyond saying it expected to focus on fewer products.
Former CEO Sanjay Jha left when the deal closed, as did top executives Christy Wyatt, Bill Ogle, John Bucher and Juergen Stark, among others.
New leaders include Motorola unit head Dennis Woodside and former DARPA chief Regina Dugan, who joined Google in March and will lead an advanced technology group within Motorola.
Other Woodside recruits include former Amazon and Nokia executive Mark Randall, and Vanessa Wittman, the former CFO of Marsh & McLennan.
The uncertainty surrounding Motorola’s future is one of the big unknowns heading into next year, Sprint CEO Dan Hesse said last week during a meeting with several reporters.
Google’s plans to cut staff at Motorola were reported earlier on Sunday by the New York Times.
Tagged with: Google, job cuts, layoffs, Motorola
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