Motorola expected to cut more jobs as it simplifies around Android

Ugh, it looks like Thursday is shaping up to be another sad Moto day. The Wall Street Journal is reporting this morning that Sanjay Jha, former Qualcomm exec and Motorola co-CEO tasked with resurrecting Motorola's mobile-devices division, is about to slash jobs in an effort to bring costs and production under control. Though obviously unwelcome news, it likely won't come as a surprise to employees since Jha reportedly told them that Motorola has two to three times as many employees working on individual projects compared to its competitors. Cuts will likely number in the "thousands," according to the WSJ's sources, and could come as early as Thursday when Motorola announces earnings... or more likely, lack thereof. Motorola has already shed 10,000 jobs since the start of 2007. In addition to job cuts, Jha plans to "scrap dozens of phone designs" while scaling back its mobile-OS inventory from more than a half-dozen to just three: Android for multi-media and Internet showcase phones, Windows Mobile for ho-hum business devices, and its own P2K for low-end phones. Moto will likely outsource at least some of its WinMo phone production as well. As to his motivation: $100 million and 3 percent stock if Mr. Jha manages to spin-out the mobile devices division into an independent company by late 2010. $30 million if he fails. Win-win, eh Sanjay?

[somewhatboxes @ Oct 29th 2008 3:27AM]

How many times have I seen that sad Motorola face...?

[Alex @ Oct 29th 2008 3:34AM]

Or the Android logo with the Motorola eyebrows...

[Information Central @ Oct 29th 2008 3:42AM]

How many shareholders are there?

[Ayman @ Oct 29th 2008 4:35AM]

I was thinking the same thing, now when ever i see the word Motorola i think sad face.... thanks Engadget.

[Ryback @ Oct 29th 2008 4:40AM]

@Ayman
When ever I see a sad face I think Motorola. :(

[Ayman @ Oct 29th 2008 5:09AM]

Ryback
Then dont go to the Stock markets... you would be Motorolized for life

[Pretol @ Oct 29th 2008 3:50AM]

Finally, they'll trim down all the ugly fat. How many times did I have to hear from Software Engineers: "Oh I work for Motorola"... Why the f*** does motorola have bazzilion software engineers with cushy jobs?

It only makes sense...

[Information Central @ Oct 29th 2008 3:53AM]

Motorola has had this coming for a long time. Their designs so lack common sense, let alone innovation, that they merit extinction. This company didn't even understand what made the StarTAC a hit, because it took them how many years to follow it up with the Razr? And the Razr heralded the start of the decline, if you look at it: The side buttons are on the wrong half of the phone (who holds a clamshell phone by its lid?)

Then we had the "wavy" keyboard design, which doesn't have the keys in straight rows. Brilliant, Motorola: that will help us with dialing by touch. And with just about every phone having at least 32 MB of memory built in, why are there no goddamned ADDRESSES in the contacts? And no notes or tasks? And if you've even tried to use Motorola Phone Tools (the product that's supposed to sync the phone with Outlook), you've wished for Motorola's extinction.

Motorola used to send its evangelists to other companies to give seminars about its "six sigma" quality program. HA HA HA! What hypocrisy.

Android is Motorola's last chance.

[Spiny Norman @ Oct 29th 2008 10:20AM]

Six Sigma simply mean that you can produce the world's finest lead life preserver. In Motorola's case, that's pretty darn close to reality.

[phanbouy @ Oct 29th 2008 12:11PM]

anyone else think these "quality" standards like 6σ are the corporate equivalent of Skull and Bones?

[Aaron @ Oct 29th 2008 3:53AM]

Why am I not surprised that the Qualcomm man ditched Symbian?

[Jon Kepler @ Oct 29th 2008 3:58AM]

Well, at least we saw it coming.

[Ahmed Alzayani @ Oct 29th 2008 4:19AM]

sad logos day!

[From My Cube @ Oct 29th 2008 4:34AM]

Why not take his fucking 100 million bonus and give it to the 10k people now without a job...Im sure those people would be happy to make it easier to put food on the table...this kinda shit pisses me off

[Alexandre Emond @ Oct 29th 2008 6:13AM]

And the 30 million (fail) bonus should pisses shareholders too.

[therealmusashi @ Oct 29th 2008 11:32AM]

"Why not take his 100 million and give it to the 10k workers that were laid off?" I'm sure as engineers for Motorola, they were scraping to put "food on the table."

Get a grasp, commie.

[ypctx @ Oct 29th 2008 6:01AM]

"and its own P2K for low-end phones" - closed source software for the win

[uskali @ Oct 29th 2008 10:07AM]

Whats the source on the 100 million 30 million details? I haven't seen that before.

[Nate @ Oct 30th 2008 8:10AM]

Wait... wtf?

"while scaling back its mobile-OS inventory from more than a half-dozen to just three"

Holy shiz niz! Motorola is going to cut their mobile-OS inventory from over 6 people to just 3? Talk about way too many lay offs!