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Motorola workforce to drop by 10 percent, cuts being made in US, China and India
Google's Motorola unit seems to be facing some hard times -- according to an email acquired by the Wall Street Journal, up to ten percent of the division's workforce is facing layoffs. "While we're very optimistic about the new products in our pipeline, we still face challenges," explained the email. High costs and losses in competitive markets are forcing the company to make staffing cuts. "These cuts are a continuation of the reductions we announced last summer," a spokesman told the WSJ. "It's obviously very hard for the employees concerned and we're committed to helping them through this difficult transition. Much like the company's August staff reduction, the new layoffs will effect workers in China, India and the US, reducing the team by about 1,200 employees overall. It's a rocky start to the season, but one the company deems necessary to get it through the next generation of mobile devices. Hopefully it has something in store with enough "wow" factor to stave off future cuts.
Motorola to cut its workforce by 20 percent, shutter a third of its offices worldwide
When Google acquired Motorola Mobility, Larry Page said the move would help "supercharge the Android ecosystem," but first, the firm needs to reorganize. That seems to be starting -- the company just announced that it will be closing a third of its 94 offices and laying off 20 percent of its workforce, including 40 percent of its vice presidents. The move will scale back its presence in Asia and India, says the New York Times, and will center its operations in Chicago, Sunnyvale and Beijing. The new, smaller Motorola will be working on less devices too, focusing on releasing a few high quality handsets each year as opposed to several dozen. Less phones means less parts, of course, and the firm says it will be dropping some suppliers and will be buying half as many components as a result. We're all for the new Moto's less-is-more approach and the potential it has to breed a new Nexus device, but Google's already made it clear that it isn't playing favorites with OEMs. Either way, it's a start.
Google officially closes deal for Motorola Mobility
Months in the making -- the deal is finally done. Motorola Mobility is officially part of Google. After receiving blessings from Europe, the US and China, the Internet giant has put the finishing touches on its purchase of Moto's mobile division. Though the corporate marriage faced plenty of obstacles, Big G was able to put the manufacturer on its ledger for the price of $40 per share, or about $12.5 billion. As it stands, Motorola Mobility will continue to operate as a separate business entity and as a licensee of Android, but Mountain View is still claiming the purchase will allow it to "supercharge" its mobile ecosystem. The future of the new subsidiary's employees is a different matter, however. Rumors have been swirling for the last week or so that there could be significant layoffs at Moto following the merger, which would further enforce the perception that Google is more interested in the company's patents than in entering the hardware business. Of course, whether or not we'll see layoffs or perhaps a Moto-branded Nexus is still a mystery. For a bit more on Google's victory lap, check out the PR after the break. Update: Google has also settled on a replacement for Sanjay Jha as CEO of Motorola Mobility, Dennis Woodside. Woodside is a longtime Googler who got his start in sales, building out business in Africa, Eastern Europe and Russia, before becoming President of the Americas sales operation.
Sanjay Jha says multiple Motorola tablet sizes coming, hints at Atrix on other carriers
Can't say this is any surprise, but Sanjay Jha just confirmed on Motorola's earnings call that he "sees good reason" to eventually release an entire family of tablets at "different multiple different display sizes and price points." Specifically, Jha mentioned 7-inch tablets, and later said that consumer demographics like kids, teenagers, and "women" want different things from a tablet than enterprise and professional customers -- which sounds suspiciously like Jha doesn't think women want a single device for work and home, but we'll give him the benefit of the doubt, since he's not always the smoothest speaker. As for the Atrix, Jha simply said that "you will see our diversity in the retail channel as well with other carriers in the US," which certainly sounds like it'll hit other carriers once the AT&T exclusivity runs out. How long that exclusivity is, we don't know -- but keep in mind that the Droid Bionic is very nearly the same phone, so there's a chance a software update will bring that sweet docking action to the red side of the market in the future. And if not, we're sure the hacking community will have it covered.
Motorola Atrix 4G and Xoom tablet launching at the end of February, Droid Bionic and LTE Xoom in Q2
Motorola had one of the best CES showings of any company in recent memory, and now we've got some rough ship dates for all that new gear: CEO Sanjay Jha just announced on the company's earnings call that the Atrix 4G for AT&T and 3G Xoom for Verizon will arrive at "the end of February," while the LTE-enabled Droid Bionic and LTE Xoom will arrive at "the end of the second quarter" as previously promised. That sounds good to us -- and with that earlier Best Buy leak suggesting the Xoom will hit on February 17, we're hoping that Moto's taking a long view of when the end of February actually begins. Even better, a late February Xoom release supports those rumors that Honeycomb will be generally released in March, which is when the real Android tablet invasion will begin. It's all happening, folks. Update: Oh boy. Jha followed up his Xoom comments in the Q&A portion by hinting that the Xoom might slip to March, but that he's very confident they'll make their timeline. Fingers crossed.
Motorola split official tomorrow, we hope you like red
Here we go. Perfectly timed with this week's festivities, Motorola's split, wherein one become two (a "reverse Spice Girls," if you will) is crossing the final t's and dotting the remaining i's. The Wall Street Journal is reporting that by Tuesday, the Motorola stock ticker (MOT) will stop trading, being replaced instead by Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc. (MMI) and Motorola Solutions Inc. (MSI, no relation). The latter will focus on public-safety radios and handheld scanners while the former, with a bright new logo, will be the smartphone / set-top box-focused company that for all intents and purposes we mean when we simply write "Motorola" from here on out. It just rolls off the tongue better.
