Ailing cell phone maker Motorola Mobility will shrink its operations in India and lay off 4,000 employees worldwide as part of its restructuring efforts, a report has said.
Loss-making Motorola Mobility, which has a good presence in India, was acquired by Google early last year as part of the Internet major’s strategy to bolster its capabilities in the Android platform, one of the widely-used mobile technologies.
The restructuring efforts at the company are aimed at reviving its sagging fortunes.
“It will shrink operations in Asia and India, and centre research and development in Chicago, Sunnyvale and Beijing,” Motorola’s new Chief Executive Dennis Woodside said in an interview to the New York Times on Sunday.
It could not be immediately ascertained what would be the impact on India operations, including the staff strength. Mr. Woodside said the company would shut one-third of its 94 offices globally and also lay off around 20 per cent of its total workforce.
As on June 30 this year, Google has 54,604 full-time employees worldwide, that includes 20,293 at the Motorola business.
Mr. Woodside said that one-third of 4,000 job loss would be in the U.S. and the company planned to leave unprofitable markets, stop making low-end devices and focus on a few cell phones instead of dozens.
In addition to the coming cuts, Google had downsized Motorola management, letting go 40 per cent of its vice-presidents, but had also hired new senior executives, the report said.
The cuts are the first step in Google’s plan to reinvent Motorola, which has fallen far behind its biggest competitors, Apple and Samsung, and to shore up its Android mobile business and expand beyond search and software into the manufacture of hardware.
The turnaround effort would also be a referendum on the management of Larry Page, Google’s Chief Executive, whose boldest move has been the $12.5 billion acquisition.
Though Google bought Motorola partly because of its more than 17,000 patents, which can help defend against challenges to the Android operating system, it also planned to use Motorola to make its own, better smartphones and tablets.
