By 
After announcing over the summer plans to downsize Motorola Mobility’s workforce by 20 percent, Google now says more job cuts are coming for the company it purchased last year for $12.5 billion. The announcement comes amidst Google’s decision to cut back operations in unprofitable markets in Asia, a reduction in the number of smartphone models offered each year, and a focus on higher-end devices.
Google says the latest round of cuts will cost the company some $340 million in severance and other associated costs, with the possibility of more losses down the road at the hands of Motorola’s restructuring. Whether or not the move comes as further proof that Google bit off more than they could chew in acquiring a hardware manufacturer, the shift aims to create a more streamlined, profitable venture in Motorola.
[via Reuters]
You might want to fix that title. $340 doesn’t seem like a whole lot.
unless youre one of the employees losing his/her job
If they made minimum wage, yeah.
In China
At Foxconn
OMG!!! Not $340!!! This is a sad sad day. Google and Moto could both go under after taking that hit. :'(
I was gonna say…I’ll foot the $340 lol
Lol, came in here just to say something similar.
If $340 is significant to Moto, then they’re in much worse shape than anyone imagined..
That’s half the retail price of 1 of their devices.
Yeah, me too! LOL
It’s not that they bit off more than they can chew, it’s that they’re not chewing. They need to tell Motorola what to do, including what phones to make, how many, and have stock Android on their devices.
Totally agree. Google should tell them to make the following phones:
Razr Maxx M (Compact, long lasting battery)
Razr Maxx HD (Large Screen, long lasting battery)
Milestone (Compact, Slide-out QWRTY Keyboard)
Milestone Pro (Compact, front-facing QWRTY Keyboard)
And that is it. Get rid of all the other crap like the Atrix lines and any carrier specific branding.
I think they should come out with one pure well made smart phone a year thats the same across all wireless providers! Dream/Wish!
You can probably add to that $340 million figure w/the loss of future business from every consumer who has/will take their business elsewhere after the failed ICS upgrade.
They’ve already lost my business,moved over to a SAMSUNG SGS III from the PHOTON. Already sold my PHOTON accessories to a member here @ A/F, I’m done w/MOTOROLA & their smartphones.
GREAT HARDWARE,firmware/software support leaves a lot to be desired.
Will be a LONG time before I look MOTO’s way again, if ever.
Funny I’ll be looking at Motorola for my next phone. I have a Samsung Droid Charge…it is a POS…in fact, the worst phone I have ever owned. I’m done with Samsung
I’ve hated Motorola ever since I had the Motorola Cliq. I’ll never buy another one of their devices.
a good way to be more efficient financial is to do what Samsung did with the sgs3. one phone, one model, one design, all with the same specs, for every carrier. remember when the razr was released on every carrier you could imagine? it was the leading phone in sales. now the razr has been limited to Verizon. one other carrier has it but i can’t think of who. Motorola needs to create one single flagship device and release it to every carrier including prepaid. that would help maximize profit and be more efficient financially!
Google didn’t bite off more than they could chew at all. I said this from the moment that they bought Motorola that they would can the majority of Motorola, including Sanjay, and restructure the entire hardware division. Motorola has lost far too many customers due to their arrogance and exclusivity and Google is looking to change that. I applaud Google for culling the dead weight at Motorola and hopefully make them a powerhouse that they once were.
I’m guessing most of the layoffs will be overseas.
Here’s the plan. We get the warhead and we hold the world ransom for…..THREE HUNDRED AND FORTY DOLLARS!!!!!
If they’re not going to change course for Motorola devices’ design and get better components, while at the same time getting them to use stock Android and 2 year long upgrades, they might have to lay off ALL Motorola’s employees eventually.
worst headline ever. seriously this is up after 10 hours?