Some 1,200 workers at Motorola Mobility are losing their jobs as Google Inc. continues the job cuts it began last year in the telecommunications equipment manufacturing firm.
The retrenchment follows an earlier announcement by Google in August last year that it was cutting 4,000 positions in the company it bought in 2011 for $12.5 billion.
As of the end of December last year, Motorola had 11,113 employees in its mobile business and 5,204 in its home business.
The Wall Street Journal reported today that workers at Motorola were informed via email that the company was losing money due to difficulties in competing in certain markets and growing operational costs. Workers in the United States, India and China will be affected by the layoff.
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In recent years, stronger competitors such as Apple, Samsung Electronics, Huawei, Sony and ZTE had lorded it over the smart phone market leaving behind former handset stalwart Motorola.
Motorola’s mobile business brought in $1.51 billion in revenues which accounts for about 11 per cent of Google’s consolidated earnings for last year’s fourth quarter. Computerworld.com reported Motorola had an operating loss of $353 million for the same period.
By contrast, Apple’s revenue for the period was $54.5 billion with a net profit of $13 billion.
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