Motorola Mobility looks likely to slash its work force by 20 percent and close a third of its offices worldwide.
The cutbacks, reported by the New York Times, seem to stem from Motorola's new owner Google, who is looking to "reinvent" the smartphone manufacturer, as it has fallen away significantly in recent years.
The likes of Apple and Samsung are currently ruling the smartphone roost, and the once iconic Motorola is in need of a reboot – with Google's first priority to streamline the business and reduce its costs.
4,000 to go, low-end shunned
In total, 4,000 people will apparently be shown the door by Motorola, with a third of those jobs being lost in the US.
Apparently from now on Motorola will only focus on markets which it's currently profitable in, reduce its smartphone range and ditch low-end handsets all together.
Google acquired Motorola Mobility for two keys reasons: to get its hands on 17,000 patents and to produce its own line of smartphones and tablets – although it selected Asus to build the Nexus 7 and could well be knocking on Samsung's door again for the next Nexus phone.
Update: A Motorola spokesperson told TechRadar: "Today, Motorola Mobility announced that its reducing its headcount by approximately 4,000. Two-thirds of the reduction is set to occur outside of the U.S.
"In addition, Motorola plans to close or consolidate about one-third of its 90 facilities as well as simplify its mobile product portfolio--shifting the emphasis from feature phones to more innovative and profitable devices.
"While Motorola expects this strategy to create new opportunities and help return its mobile devices unit to profitability, it understands how hard these changes will be for the employees concerned.
"Motorola is committed to helping them through this difficult transition and will be providing generous severance packages, as well as outplacement services to help people find new jobs."
It's still unclear how Google plans to utilise the manufacturing side of Motorola, but with this first round of action from the search giant, there's obviously something in the pipeline.
From New York Times
